Trip Date: September 17-18, 2022
Trail Overview
Trail: Fish Creek Trail Distance: 25.6 miles Elevation Gain: 3,940 ft. Location: Inyo National Forest Permits: Wilderness permits are required. Reservations can be made 6 months in advance on Recreation.gov
The Story
Do you have any natural hot springs on your bucket list? I’ve had these specific hot springs on my radar for quite some time, but the nearly 12.5-mile hike in had me postponing this hike until I felt up to the challenge and until I found a hiking partner that was also down.
It was just a couple of weeks since I completed my second round of hiking the John Muir Trail. I felt I was up for the challenge. My good friend, Kiersten had made plans to drive up to California from Arizona and head out for an extended backpacking trip. She was down. She is always down. Unfortunately, after running into major car troubles on the drive, we were unsure if this trip was going to happen. She was already in California but now had to face the cost of possibly getting her truck transported all the way back to Arizona. I somehow talked her into shortening our trip, knowing the backcountry and hot springs would be worth the hike in and nature therapy worked at its best.
When we arrived down at Red’s Meadow, it was a lot later than we had anticipated hiking in, especially with 12.5 miles ahead of us. Luckily for us, it was all downhill. It was around 2:30 PM when we started our hike in, with no plans as to when we were going to stop, we agreed to hike until the sun had set and try to make it as close to the springs as possible.
We begin our hike on the JMT, headed South. Of course, this brought back memories of having just hiked the JMT, but we made time to stop and check out Rainbow Falls. As many times as I have been to Mammoth, I never made time to visit. It was something special of course, but sort of being in a time crunch we snapped a few quick photos with Nova and continued our hike.
The hike-in was pretty. A new area I hadn’t explored before, and really felt the connection by connecting the dots from previous trips. We hiked well into the night as we were caught on a few switchbacks making our way down to the river. Using our headlamps to follow the trail, we opted for the first big open meadow to set up camp. Tired, hungry, and still happy to be out and about, we made a quick dinner and called it a night.
The next morning, we took our time getting up and ready. We decided to pack our stuff and continue on towards the hot springs rather than leave camp set up since it was less than 3-miles away. I spotted a bear in the far distance as we were packing up and brought it to Kiersten’s attention to get ahold of Nova and make sure he was okay. I do not think the bear saw us that morning.
It took us a little under 2-hours to make it to the hot springs and we had an entire day to camp and soak! Happy that we decided to bring camp closer since we were able to find a few decent camping options that quickly filled up later that evening.
It was pretty amazing having the hot springs to ourselves for a couple of hours. It was also mid-day and a little warm to fully enjoy, but you best believe we spent all day in multiple springs. We must’ve soaked in at least 3 different pools that trip! Each pool was a different temp, and each pool had a different view. We soaked until the sunset and started making our way back down to camp. When we arrived at camp, we realized several other groups had hiked in and made their way to soak. It was perfect timing actually.
The next morning we soaked in one last pool before making our way back to the car, a complete 12.5-miles in one day. All uphill. Still totally worth it. Of course, if the mileage and the elevation weren’t enough adventures for one day, let’s toss in a bear encounter, shall we?! It had to have been the middle of the hike, as we had been hiking for a couple of hours and still had many miles ahead of us. Kiersten and Nova were ahead of me and I sorta zoned out, just making miles. I’m not sure I remember how it happened, but either Kiersten or Nova noticed the bear first.
This time, it had been a lot closer than the previous morning. And this time, the bear was on the trail! Kiersten grabbed ahold of Nova so as to not startle the bear and I stepped in to somehow scare it away. After all, this wasn’t my first bear encounter. This was, however, my first curious bear encounter and this bear was not leaving! After smacking together my poles, yelling “go away!” and making all the noise we possibly can, this bear STEP CHECKED us! I was terrified. I was terrified, but I couldn’t let my friend know it. I kid you not we must’ve had a 2-min stare down before the bear jokingly walked away.
Now on high alert, we kept an eye out for the next several miles. Thankfully, we didn’t run into any other wildlife on that trip, but my goodness that was quite the encounter! 🐻
