Remington Hot Springs Trip Report

Hi folks,

I camped at the Kern River this past weekend. Checked out Delonegha, Miracle and Remington hot springs, plus the Kern River Brewing company. As I was informed on various internet sites, Delonegha is private property now and therefore no longer accessible, and Miracle was destroyed a number of years ago. Not that I didn't believe what I'd been told, but my explorer's instinct left me with a compunction to check them out for myself anyway. So I eyeballed Delonegha from the road, and hiked to the still-flowing source of Miracle. Perhaps someday one or both of those two springs will be useable/open again, and now I know how to get to them.

Most of my time, however, was spent at Remington Hot Springs, which is every bit the delight they're reported to be. Since Remington is very accessible from the road, there was a steady stream of people soaking at the Remington tubs, but all whom I met there turned out to be very pleasant company.

Also met a gentleman named Bryan who is one of the volunteer caretakers of Remington Hot Springs. Nice guy, and clearly does a lot of hard work and cares for the springs a lot. If anybody else from this forum makes it out to Remington, please help Bryan out by packing out all your trash and any trash you find there that other people failed to pack out. Also, there's a white bucket kept by the springs, which you're supposed to dip into the tubs and use to rinse the grit off your feet before you get in the springs -- this helps to keep the tubs clean.

The uppermost, rectangular tub was quite warm, and measured 108F on my thermometer. 110F right inside the source. The second-highest tub was 102F or 104F. The lowest tub is cold right now, because the Kern river is just high enough right now to overflow the edge of lowest tub, but not the other two.

I also had a good deal of fun going off the ropeswing on the tree that's just a ways upstream of the tubs. The fun part was to spill over the wall from the middle tub, from warm water to cold, and let the eddy current that's right there sweep you upstream to the ropeswing. Get out, go off the ropeswing,* and then swim out to the edge of the main current. Let the current sweep you downstream, then swim a few feet closer to the shore, let the eddy current catch you again, and then it will bring you right back to the tubs. Climb over the wall again, go from cold water to hot. Lots of fun!

*One should go off the rope-swing feet-first only. No fancy flips or anything. The water where you land is deep enough, but you will touch the sandy bottom with your feet, so anything other than feet first is likely not a good idea. Actually, flips and nonesuch off of ropeswings are usually a bad idea, safety-wise, anyways, given the danger of getting tangled.

Found a great campsite downriver of the springs -- I'd heard here and from the locals that it's legal and free to camp in that area, for up to two weeks.

Also checked out the Kern River Brewing company, which I heartily recommend. Sadly, I could only have one beer, since I had to drive afterwards. But that one -- their Sequoia Red -- was quite tasty.

Thanks again to Sam D. on soakersforum.com, for all the tips on the springs and on Kern River Brewing.

Joel



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2011 01:25PM by JoelTDahl.