Exploring By the Amargosa River with Susan, April 14 – 16

In a slot canyon just off the Amargosa River. Photo Susan Campo.

May 17, 2023

Outings Reports

Led by Susan Campo and Jeff Bates

Photo above: In a slot canyon off the Amargosa River Valley.

By Jeff Johnson

Way back in Spring 2020, Susan arranged a multiday desert hiking trip near the Amargosa River in the Mojave Desert. She had done all the scouting and pre-planning and arranging, Then COVID-19 struck and she had to cancel the whole thing. This year, Susan decided she could still make it happen, and she did. Here’s what happened.

The long weekend trip was based at Tecopa Hot Springs Resort—“resort” meaning there were motel rooms and (indoor) tubs for soaking in the hot mineral water piped up from under the town. Three days of hikes were planned at a convenient driving distance from the resort.

Friday afternoon we visited the Tecopa Ecological Reserve. The original hot springs in the marsh area there have been used for thousands of years. We hiked a loop from the marsh across the crusty alkaline flats and hills. Then we headed north to the town of Shoshone. The endemic Amargosa Pupfish survive there in ponds by Shoshone Spring, which drains into the Amargosa River. We also visited the Shoshone cemetery and Dublin Gulch, an early miners’ settlement where dwellings were dug out of the soft caliche cliffs. Back at the resort that night, we ate very well at the adjacent Steaks and Beers restaurant, an outpost of contemporary food culture I would not have expected to find in a scraggly desert town.

Saturday, the big hike of the weekend was along a section of the Amargosa River south of Tecopa. We started the day with breakfast treats from the store at China Ranch Date Farm, an historic date ranch by Willow Creek, the largest tributary of the Amargosa River. Then we walked down from the China Ranch Trailhead toward the river. In the middle of the river valley, we turned north on a trail that follows an old railroad bed. This is one section of a network of trails around Death Valley that make up the 811-mile “Death Q” trail. For most of its length, the Amargosa River flows underground, but in this area the river flows on the surface. A surprise on the river in the middle of the wide, flat valley was a splashing waterfall surrounded by a marsh of tall tules. Another surprise was finding acres of wild, native grapevines growing where natural seeps come out of hillsides. Our hike ended when we got into the town of Tecopa, and relaxed in the shade in the comfortable chairs at Death Valley Brewing .

Sunday, we packed up and headed south toward home, stopping along the way at the Salt Spring Hills. Salt Creek is a tributary of the Amargosa River that appears at the surface here, making an isolated riparian area that is now the Salt Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern. This area was known to  indigenous people and to California immigrants coming across the desert, who found gold in the hills here in 1849. Mining started at Salt Creek Mines in 1850, making it the “oldest Anglo gold mine in Southern California.” We hiked a loop through the historic mining area and the riparian area.

One highlight of this trip was the many familiar and unfamiliar Spring wildflowers in bloom. Susan said in her announcement for the trip that we would stop often to photograph flowers. We definitely did that.

A big GLS thanks to Susan and her coleader Jeff Bates for taking us on such an interesting and well-planned adventure!

Seen by the trail

The original Tecopa Hot Springs, in the , north of the little town. The Resting Spring Range in the distance. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Walking through the mud hills and flats near the hot springs. Photo Jeff Johnson.
A row of dugout dwellings in an embankment at Dublin Gulch in Shoshone. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Dave in one of the dugouts at Dublin Gulch. You can see fossil sea shells in the caliche layers of the embankment on either side of the opening. Photo Jeff Johnson.
One of the ponds fed by Shoshone Spring where Amargosa pupfish survive. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae), only an inch or two long. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Date palms at the China Ranch Date Farm. Photo Susan Campo.
Saturday morning at the China Ranch Trailhead. Photo Jeff Johnson.
At the 1903 building below China Ranch Date Farm. This building may have been related to the historic borax mining in the area or may have been a store or a saloon. Photo Susan Campo.
Entering the Amargosa River Valley, walking toward the old railroad bed that goes up the valley, which our trail follows toward Tecopa. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Crossing the Amargosa River, or a little branch of it. Photo Susan Campo.
Susan at the waterfall in the Amargosa River. The invasive tamarisk was removed from this area a while ago, so the waterfall is mostly surrounded by tules. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Wild grapes growing in a wet spot by the trail. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Susan and Ginger put their feet up at Death Valley Brewing in Tecopa after the hike. Photo Susan Campo.
Crossing the creek in the Salt Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Photo Susan Campo.
Ruins of a stamping mill at the Salt Creek Mines. Photo Jeff Johnson.
Ruins at the Salt Creek Mines site. Dumont Dunes OHV area in the distance. Photo Jeff Johnson.

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