Borax Lake Hot Springs and Little Borax Hot Springs

Borax Lake Hot Springs and Little Borax Hot Springs

A day hike or mountain bike ride to a salty thermal lake and hot pots in a desert valley. Skinnydippable with discretion. Superheated, 196-degree F water gushes up through vents in the bottom of Middle Borax Lake, cooling as it disperses, to a temperature in the mid-80s that varies in different parts of the lake and times of year. It’s a modest lake, only about 300 feet across, and only a foot or so deep until you’re well out from shore. The center is quite deep and very pleasant swimming on a warm day. An air mattress or inner tube would ease the trip out. Little Borax, as it’s called by some, refers to the last in a string of small “hot pots” that runs north from Middle Borax Lake. Reach it by following a track 0.7 mile due north from the rusting borax works. The pools, called ephermial vents, come in various sizes and flows. They’re all deep, sometimes dangerously hot, and subject to occasional sudden surges in temperature.

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