I arrived at dawn. It was cold and very windy. It felt like a March day. Made my way down the trail. Trail is in good condition although someone has busted the gate at the lower 4WD parking area where you enter the Goat Trail. This is suppose to keep the motorcycles off but I know it hasn't helped. I arrived at the creek at 6:40 am and crossed easily. There is still a rope up but it certainly isn't needed. There was one camper who calls himself Rodney wearing an Army surplus mechanics jump suit to keep warm. He was there when the tickets were given but had managed to walk by the Rangers without them stopping him. From that I guess they were only ticketing those who they were sure had a tent. He had one but wasn't in it and he didn't come back until they left. He also said the helicopter had come low enough to scatter the embers of one of the fires. He said they had requested over the loud speaker for them to put the fires out and when no one complied they came in lower to create the wind. I'm all for enforcement just hope they understand the rotor wash could start a fire. Rodney was picking up the trash from Sunday and he had a very large black leaf bag full. This is my first visit since December and I appreciate all the work that has restored the walls and kept the pools like they were.

Three couples came down from Bowen. One couple was from LA and they were textile free and very pleasant and very pierced. The other two couples were from France and were visiting for the morning. All of them shared beers and exchanged stories about visits to the springs. They were all heading for Vegas so they left about 9:30 and I was left to enjoy this beautiful place to myself for the rest of the morning. As most of you say, if you want a tranquil experience you had to go on a weekday and you have to go early and then the campers still may beat you to a pool but there will be room to enjoy it. I went out before noon carrying out the little bit of trash I found by the pools and headed home.