2006/03 Southwest USA trip (AZ-MN) - Hot Wells Dunes |
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From Globe it was a blast across the San Carlos Apache Reservation to Safford, which is really close to the Round Mountain area where we’d been looking for fire agates about two weeks previously. The road down to the hot springs was not signposted, but I’d been given directions by Larry, the Canadian we’d met at Round Mountain. So after bouncing 25 miles across the desert we came to the Hot Wells Dunes Recreation Area. It’s managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and we had to pay for a campsite and use of the hot wells, half of $3!
We enjoyed the tub, just right at a tad over 100 degrees, and stayed there until the sun went down. It took us a while in the dark to find a flat spot, away from the tracks, for a campsite. This is a recreation area, not a park, so it isn’t very quiet. There were a already a few people buzzing around the dunes on ATVs and motorcycles, but that’s why we wanted to get there on a Thursday and avoid the weekend crowd! Larry had warned us that things get a bit crazy and very noisy at the weekend.
The wells were formed back in the 1920s when an oil drilling crew struck hot water instead of oil. Since then the constant flow of water has created an oasis in the desert, with trees growing around the flow until the water disappears back into the sand. Today there are just two concrete tubs out in the middle of the desert and a few signs telling the wells’ history and reminding people that public nudity is not allowed.
Friday February 17th
We woke up to cloudy skies, but went back to the hot tubs for a quick soak before we left. The air temperature was in the forties, so the 100º+ water felt really good!
It was a simple drive south from there across the desert to Bowie, but I suggested we try to find the Joy Valley, another area for fire agates. We weren’t quite sure where we were or where the valley is, but it was worth a try. We ended up bouncing along on a sand road up in the Whitman Wash area, past the Whitman Diversion Dam. Upstream of the dam there were cows rather than water, but I suppose the dam’s useful when the water’s flowing. We had lunch at this water hole, watched by the local cows.
Our GPS showed that we were northwest of Joy Valley so we headed south looking for a road across to the east. We found one, but it was obviously little used as we were driving over bushes. We stopped at a section that looked to be more rock than road, and then realized we were in the middle of a good chalcedony area. We never found Joy Valley but we did find lots of beautiful pale pink chalcedony and a few examples which looked to have brown or red agate splashes, and may be fire agates. The weather, though, was going downhill, with strong, gusty winds and some light showers.