DCHS Today ( 1-6 ) Snow At The Springs

I did a hike to DCHS today and there was lots of snow in the hills all the way up the Bowen Ranch Rd on the drive in. The scenery on the hike to the springs was beautiful :-) When I got to DCHS there were three guys soaking in the Aniversary Pool, and three other people were just arriving having come down the Bradford Ridge Trail. I waded the creek ( quite chilly ) and it was just below my chest at the deepest spot which was very briefly. I got in the Womb and found that Chuck, a very long time regular who travels the west to all kinds of hotsprings was there. While we were talking he said he has been to almost 150 differant hotsprings so far.

We had a nice long chat in the Womb since I had not seen him in quite a while. He has a home in New Mexico near Spence Hot Springs ( 4 miles from his place ) but he travels around alot of the time. The Womb at the deepest is about waist high, having a nice comfortable sand bottom. Chuck and I went up to the Aniversary Pool to warm up with the hotter water in that pool. It also has lots of sand on the bottom and is about a foot and a half in depth. Lots of sand is built up right to the edge of the pool on its north side so you can just step right in.

The Arizona Pool really got hammered by the big flood. A few big boulders have rolled into it and there is one that is really big, like maybe 300 pounds big! As Chuck and I were soaking in the Aniversary Pool we heard a familiar voice from the top of the cliff across the creek and Jobe had shown up. He had come down for a quick check on things. He waded across and joined the conversation with Chuck and I. Jobe checked out the Aniversary Pool and is thinking that maybe that really big rock can be muscled over to the upstream side of the pool and secured in place with cement as a wall to future flooding. Its going to take some strong people to get those rocks out of there. The other rocks may be able to be positioned also for that wall Jobe has in mind. Have to wait till late spring when the water goes down for that :-)

The big sandy area above the Arizona Pool is replenished with lots of new sand. There is also a big sand bank under water out in front of the Womb in the creek. If no flooding before summer scours it out then that area will be quite shallow. The Serenity Pool is complety filled in with sand and in front of the Crab Cooker is a large sand bank.

Jobe and I were the last ones there today and we departed close to sunset while we still had light. I brought an empty gallon milk jug and filled it with hot water so when I waded back across the creek I poured it on my body to warm back up, and I warmed my feet up the same way before I put my shoes on :-) It was interesting to see all of the changes at DCHS from the recent big flooding there. I could see that this flood event got just a smidge higher than the big flood in 2005, so that makes it the highest creek flow I have ever seen at DCHS since 1984 when I first began to visit these springs.

As I was driving home and was in the general vicinity of the Bowen Ranch area I saw something falling from the sky. After a bit I could see that they were snowflakes and it snowed very lightly and briefly. I didn't expect that since the low pressure system spinning southeast out in the ocean is not like a cold system coming from the northwest! I took alot of photos and have already posted a few from todays hike at the Wizard's pictures link below on this page. Or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotspringswizard/?saved=1
I'll be posting more pics from today's hike soon, gotta hit the sack :-)