Part 1 - Northern Access The northern access via the Bowen Ranch road is by far the most used route by DCHS visitors. There are other routes, the PCT from the east of the springs which is used very infrequently by people heading to DCHS. The Bradford Ridge trail from the south which sees a bit more traffic and the PCT from the west ( Mohave Dam area ) which has more DCHS visitors that the Bradford Ridge trail. On the North side of Deep Creek there is a road besides the Bowen Ranch road which will bring you up into the ranch area. It takes off of Deep Creek road which is northwest of the springs and follows the powerlines up the hills. It begins as route 6 and is a power line maintenance road. After three and a half miles of dirt you will come to a turn off to your right which is route 8 which will connect you to route 3 in the Bowen Ranch general vicinity. I've used this route many times but it is a bit steep in the beginning. Any two wheel vehicle can make it. It is actually less dirt road driving that coming up the Bowen ranch Road and has a great veiw of the Victor Valley from the upper reaches of the hills. This road is however little used by DCHS visitors since it is little known and a bit steep. There is another access which goes to the lower Forestry parking lot of the Bowen trail to the east of the Bowen Ranch. I will refer to this lower Forestry parking lot here from now on as the LFPL. It begins just after the cattle gaurd on the Bowen Ranch road and is Route 1. I beleive there is still a sign there which says Luna Vista Ranch. It takes you south east through Luna Vista ranch and up against the north side of Luna Mtn. and then back down to the lower parking lot. There is also a short cut road called Route 2 which goes just on the east side of round Mtn. and connects with Route 1 on the south side. Both Route 1 and 2 end up taking you back to the LFPL. I used both of these routes many times. Also Route 2 makes the trip around that direction a bit shorter but is rough in sections and 4 wheel drive territory. You basically should have a four wheel drive vehicle to drive Route 1 all the way around to the LFPL. These roads ( Route 1 and 2 ) are basically not used by hotsprings visitors since they are lengthy and much rougher. In times past you could have used the Moss Mill road just before the Bowen Ranch. I used this road and was confronted by Mike Castro a number of times. During the time I traveled this Route it was signed as a BLM open Route as shown in Katrina's Deep Creek Website link about the Moss Mill blockade. Finally I called the BLM and told them that they should talk to the Bowen Ranch folks and get them to stop confronting people on an open BLM route. The person at the BLM office told me that the issue of whether this route was open was not clear. I told them that the BLM needed to figure out whether the road was legal since confrontations were occuring and they should either take down the signs or tell Mike Castro to stop confronting people. It was not long before the signs came down. Katrina's link explains all thats happened along this Route since that time. There is talk that this road may open again in the future but for now it is not an option. Before the Willow Fire there was Route 1 and 2 which went west past the northside of the Bowen Ranch and then south and east back to the LFPL. At one point the Forestry Dept. came in and enlarged the LFPL area a great deal and put up signs and also had a contractor do work on the Bowen Ranch trail heading into DCHS. They also graded the steep hill of the road heading to the west which was the way back to route 2 and then 1. After that you could drive basically any two wheel drive vehicle down to the lower parking lot. Mike Castro was mad about this improved road into the LFPL saying it was too easy. Of course there were many people that felt it was about time that a decent public access route had been created to the springs trail head at the LFPL. The Willow Fire occured and shut everything down for a year or so. Finally the Foresty Dept. announced that they would be opening up the area around the springs on Memorial Day. I had to that point accessed through the Bowen Ranch on numerous occasions throughout the years I'd visited DCHS. The BLM made a deal with the Forestry Dept. to allow hikers who parked on the Bowen Ranch to hike across the little strip of BLM territory to get to the hotsprings trail at the LFPL. No other BLM lands could be crossed. So this meant that the Bowen Ranch at that point was the only access point from the north of DCHS. I headed up to the springs on that memorial day and stoped at the Bowen Ranch gate to pay and nobody came out of the ranch building so I got out of my vehicle and went up to the door. Mike Castro came to the door and asked me to come in. In the front, first room ( screened porch ) Mike sat down in a chair and began talking about trash and how all the hotspringers were going to have to start taking there trash out. I'm sure he was getting pressured from the Forestry Dept. about problems with trash at the springs. Anyway he was obviously agitated. In the room with us was one other girl who was not really part of this conversation Mike and I were having. I did not like the idea that I was being talked to about trash at the springs when I had taken lots and lots of large trash bags full of trash out of the springs, mostly left by visitors passing through the Bowen Ranch. I felt like Mike of all people should know this. A short, very short argument occured between Mike and I and then he told me to leave his ranch. I left quickly and did not say anything derogetory to him. I went to the BLM check point at the Bowen Ranch road and 3N14 and told the BLM rangers what had happened and I expressed that the situation of access as it stood was unfair. A day or so later I sent off a lengthy letter to Tim Read the head BLM honcho in the Barstow area and expressed in my letter that the agencies had a situation of access to DCHS from the north in which a private landowner was in a position to dictate who would be able to access from this direction, the shortest point of entry to DCHS. I told him what had happened with Castro making me leave his ranch and also told him that for the general public as a whole an open public access route around the Ranch was the only way to have a fair situation up there. No private person should be in a position to keep the public, any of the public from accessing their public lands. I sent pictures of my wife, kids, and myself on various trips at the springs to bring my experience of DCHS more clearly into Tim Reads mind. We waited some weeks and then came the announcement from the BLM that they were going to hand out maps of new public access routes that would be opened up in the area. I went up with my wife and kids the weekend they began handing out the new maps. I pulled up to the BLM check point on the Bowen Ranch road. As I picked up the map from a young ranger I saw Mike Castro and the head BLM enforcement ranger, Barry Nelson. standing by the door of a motorhome. Their demeanor was less than friendly to say the least.