The easiest way to get to the hot springs is from the Bradford ridge trail. I arrived at the trail head at 8:35 am. While going on Hwy.173 from Lake Arrowhead the road is closed from Willow Dr. until North Shore Dr. The reason it is closed is because there is a river of water going over and under the road and the road has washed away in two places. To get around this just make a right on Golden Rule road and take the first left. Go @ 1/2 a mile and you come to a stop sign which is Hwy. 173 again.
It took me 50 minuets to travel the trail to the springs. While going down the trail I noticed 2 large oak trees had blown over. One had a very large lightening strike and a huge burnt limb on it. The other was near the top of a hill and had only blown over onto it's side. It might live. I also saw 5 pine trees that were laying down hill.
While at the springs I took @ 50 pictures and @ 10 minuets of video of the spring area. I plan on learning how to put the video on you tube I will post here when I figure that out. The creek was a little more than 2 feet below the dam of the womb and very COLD. I did not have my thermometer today. I guess the creek was well below 50 degrees today.
The Womb pool was more than half full of sand and you could walk over to the dam side. It was in the mid to low 90's and had some sticks in it.
The Anniversary pool was completely full of sand. You could not soak there at all.
The crab cooker and the serenity pool were under water.
The Arizona pool may be completely gone. The large rock that separates this pool from the water was not visible.
The beach above the Arizona pool is completely transformed. Many logs are lodged there for future camp fires.
Also the flat camp site just down stream from the pools has a huge amount of logs there. And one of the large sycamore trees there is very damaged.
I took many pictures of all of these things. While doing this I heard a loud crash and then the sound of something being dragged.
Much to my surprise Santa landed his sleigh right on the beach area and he had 12 beautiful elf helpers with him. These were the female helpers because all the men were obviously busy the day before Christmas. They had come to clean out the hot springs for their men folks so they can soak there after the big day. So they spent @ 4 hours with tiny little shovels getting the pools ready. Remember elf's are only four feet tall. So I tended to the rain deer while they got to work. They got @ 70% of the sand out of the Anniversary pool. It is a nice soak there now. They also got @ 60% of the sand out of the womb so the men folk can soak there too. They did all of this and with out any magic dust too.
As Santa left he said
"HO ! HO ! HO! Merry Christmas every one"