Death Valley and hot springs!

Our plan was to head up to Mammoth Lakes and then Yosemite, but a giant snow storm thwarted those plans. So we journeyed back into the hot desert to wait until the roads north were cleared and ended up in Death Valley National Park. We spent our first day poking around and exploring some popular canyons. But at the end of the day, we realized we needed to get away from all the touristy spots. Colin had read about some hot springs in the northwest part of the park, and we were lucky to get a backcountry road map that had a small dot marked "Warm Springs." On our way out, we met a young couple in a Subaru who decided they too would attempt to make it up the "high-clearance" potentially snow-covered dirt road to the hot springs. Three hours of jostling and bumping later, we were there--a small camping area surrounding six or so tubs of varying heat and privacy. Luckily it was dark when we attempted our first soak ... because everybody was naked! We were thankful when most of the crowd left the next day and we had a beautiful day of sun and quiet to enjoy some more soaks and take in the beautiful scenery--desert mountains on one side and the snow covered eastern side of the Sierras on the other. Not a bad trip we're having ...