Palomar Canyon

Next, I went north to the next canyon, Palomar Canyon, where I had read was a hot spring!

The access road is rough, with large exposed rocks in the washes. I had to drive carefully with my RV to make it all the way to the spring. At one point I stopped to do a half hour of rock rearranging because my van was too wide to pass between a couple of boulders.

On the way is an abandoned home at the site marked "El Palomar" on my map. A fire had recently come through, but most of the palms look like they will survive.

Palomar Hot Spring

The hot spring itself was a beautiful surprise! There is a pool, well constructed of rocks and cement. It all seems lovingly taken care of. The pool was empty of water when I arrived, which is nice – I could fill it with nice clean water. There are brooms there for sweeping out any dirt. The pool fills in a couple hours with 103° water piped from the hot spring source a quarter mile up canyon, creating a lovely warm (97°) soaking pool. There is also a metal barrel positioned in the water in which a fire can be lit to heat the water further.

Exploring the oasis, I found these cute mushrooms and some blue palm trees – which are a bluer, more silvery shade of green:

Cute oven

For some reason, there is a desk out there at the end of the road. Curiosity made me open one of the drawers, and I turned up a fun little stash of goodies. What I found wasn't my thing, but it made me smile.