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Monitor Hot
Spring |
| The road
eventually led down into the Monitor Valley and turned into SSR 82. Our
two different hot springs guidebooks often vary in their descriptions of
the springs and in the driving directions. In some cases we need to interpolate
the information from the guidebooks to locate a particular pool. This was
the case in the Monitor Valley, where we eventually located the outlandish
scene of a perfect-temperature tub sitting at the best spot for a view of
the valley, cattle milling about the spring-fed marsh in the distance. By
this time, late on winter’s afternoon, the cold air made the entry
to the tub a rush of clothes-shedding followed by a quick jump into the
water. Fortunately, our emergence from the water a half-hour later was much
calmer. The hot water had raised the temperature of my body straight through
to the core, enough to keep me warm during the time it took to get my clothes
and winter coat back on. |
| The hot
spring in this valley we had most looked forward to visiting is known as
Diana’s Punch Bowl. One guidebook calls this remote spring the most
unique of all Nevada’s thermal features. Located at the top of a white
travertine hill, a mini-mountain rising up from the flat desert floor, it
can be seen from five miles away. At the top of the hill there is an opening
like the mouth of a miniature volcano 50 feet across. But this volcano is
not brimming with lava. Instead it contains a deep blue-green pool of hot
water. The vertical sides of the cone allow for no entrance to the water
30 feet down except by diving in. But diving would not be a good idea; the
water is much too hot for bathing, and there is no way to get out. |
| Unfortunately by
the time we arrived at Diana’s Punch Bowl the sun had already faded
away and the lack of color and light did not inspire any photography. So
my picture of Diana’s on this page was borrowed from the Web and mucked
up enough with Photoshop to blur the copyright issues. This will have to
do until I can get an original image of the scene. |
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Our intention was to spend
the night camping beside the hill, next to the comfortably-hot stream
which flows alongside. But there was not a single spot for bathing;
the deepest spot in the stream being only knee high. Judy, the more
intrepid camper of this tour, was eager to spend the night in the tent
nevertheless. But I felt that sub-freezing camping without the benefit
of a hot pool to jump into was too Spartan for my tastes. So we left
Diana’s and headed further down the Monitor Valley.
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