Do you ever get the feeling like you just need to take off for a little while? Last weekend I decided to take a road trip and ended up at a rodeo in Bishop. I also got to see some of the most beautiful country in the world in and around the Lone Pine/Mt. Whitney area close to Mammoth.

I have to show you some pictures of a little river with Hawaii-blue water that’s hot enough to cook you. It’s a little place called Hot Springs outside of Mammoth and it’s a beautiful little valley/canyon with a river flowing through it, except part of the river has burning hot magma underneath it, causing pure white water to flow out of the ground with big clouds of steam.

A good friend of mine told me that he used to go skinny dipping there back in the ’70s and it was a really popular spot until people started getting cooked alive. The water temperature Advertisement

[ Chatton and Associates ] goes from 85 degrees to 190 degrees in less then five seconds, so by the time you realize it is getting hot, your skin is being boiled off.

So, they have part of the springs fenced off and there is some hippy-lookin’ ranger who will give you a ticket if you cross the fence. I didn’t even think the guy was a real ranger; the shirt he was wearing didn’t look like a real ranger shirt. It had so many holes I couldn’t tell if it was from Abercrombie or a thrift store.

As you’re leaving Hot Springs, take a left on Amargosa Road; it takes you on a beautiful drive to an outdoor shooting range. If you go on past the shooting range the road loops around to show you some amazing views of the meadows in between mountains.

The springs are located off Highway 395 just southeast of Mammoth Lakes Village, close to where the 203 and 395 come together.