As far as California hot springs go this one is thankfully a little off the beaten path, in this case 8 miles off the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierras near Mammoth. I somewhat foolishly tried to approach the hot springs over new year's 2013 from Horseshoe Lake. Mammoth had unseasonably low snow accumulation which I thought might make the trip possible but they had a truly anomalous high wind event a few weeks before. This combination led to thousands of downed trees along the trail (some logs piled three high) and soft post hole snow that was a formidable combination; we only made it 3 miles in and camped at the edge of Crater Meadow. A visit to Iva Bell had been on my mind since but it took over 4 years until I found the opportunity. Being mid-Sierra hiking season I dreaded the permit logistics. We drove up on August 4th, made it to the Lone Pine Visitor Center by 4:40p, and in 5 minutes were out the door with permit in hand for a August 5th start. I was amazed and thankful for the simplicity! We borrowed a bear can from my Mammoth family, packed, and caught up with them a little. We opted to camp at Hilltop Hot Springs, which unfortunately was a lot busier than I hoped and so we didn't even try to soak.
The nest morning we had a leisurely morning and tasty breakfast before driving up to Horseshoe Lake. We made good time on the trail, hiking past McCloud Lake, over Mammoth Pass, and past Upper Crater Meadow where we joined the superhighway of the Pacific Crest Trail. The wildflowers were out in force; the mosquitoes were relentless. We veered off the trail where the PCT traverses above Fish Valley for a quick lunch. I could see the area where the hot springs were, a mere 1.5 miles as the crow flies but nearly 5 more hours of hiking for us.
After a little more than 7 hours of trail hiking from my car it was time to veer off for my cross country route I scouted from Google Earth. We would only have to go about a mile and drop 2000' but this was easier said than done. The top of the route started as pleasant traverses over granite slickrock with ancient looking trees, but things quickly got steeper requiring us to carefully downclimb a loose gully. Then we had to bushwhack for what seemed like forever. Carefully skirt around a spring guarded by nasty stinging nettles, then more insulting bushwhacking to finally reach Fish Creek. This took a full 3 hours, about three times longer than I could have imagined. It did cut 13 miles off of our route though.
We managed to botch our first creek crossing (fast flowing with large slippery rocks) and so retreated and tried at the proper trail crossing 250 ft further. The mosquitoes were a black cloud. It was 5p by the time we crossed the creek. We were both feeling a little tired but we still had some miles to make.
After a water break at the bizarre trail summit between upper and lower Fish Valley, we ambled down the long switchbacks and guessed at an unmarked trail that seemed to lead towards the hot springs area. I was surprised at the lack of trail signs and the complex spidery trail network- it would take us hours of exploration to fully examine this little area. We walked through some larger camps and ended up choosing a really nice campsite next to the two lowest hot spring pools. Unfortunately about every mosquito in existence seemed to take interest in us. I am sure I have experienced worse mosquitoes but I can't remember when. They were a cloud. They ignored repellent. They bit at every opportunity. They were so bad it was a struggle to think and it was all we could do to quickly boil water and eat dinner hidden in the tent. We hoped the mosquitoes would ease once it got dark but they were still ravenous. We did discover that they seemed to be minimal when we were soaking in the hot springs, maybe something about the heat or steam confusing their senses. We enjoyed a starry night from the pool closest to camp, and then a good night's sleep.
The next day we quickly abandoned the more lofty plans of side hiking 14 miles to Bettlebug Lake and instead spend the day exploring the Iva Bell area. The ~40 acre area is a sloping meadow coated in wildflowers and crosscrossed by closely spaced springs, some cold and some warm. I used my phone to map all the camps, pools, and trails as we came across them. We worked our way up the hillside, marveling at the several voluminous orange travertine mounds. I even found a [spidery] sauna cave! As a bonus the further up the hill we went the stronger the breeze and the fewer the mosquitoes. The highest pool was easily my favorite (frontispiece). It was a well built rock lined pool perched atop a travertine mound with great shade and a commanding view. It was designed such that the pool temperature could easily be adjust by selectively deflecting the hot source creek. In total we found six very nice soaking pools and at least two others that could be developed. We spent quite a bit of the day exploring, soaking, replenishing our water, and soaking some more. We got a few minutes of rain from passing thunderstorms which had us hoping for more. We cooked dinner at the halfway pools and sat in the pools as the sunset (this pool the mosquitoes did not play fair).
We woke up early for one more quick soak before packing. The butt kicking elevation gain and long miles to regain the Mammoth Lakes Basin meant that we opted to take an alternate route via the 11 mile trail down the valley and up to Reds Meadow as most people approach the hot springs. We'd figure out the shuttle situation on the fly to get back to our car. The early start and cool morning meant we made excellent time hiking down the valley to "Island Crossing". Here we had a major snafu. We crossed the creek where it had four braids at Island Crossing per the topo map but were alarmed to not find any cairns or signs at the crossing. Once across the cut trail could only be intermittently followed. I was surprised and confused. We were on the trail according to the map but there was no recent footprints. For about 45 minutes we crossed the stubbornly overgrown debris fan until, with a slight clearing, I could see a sizable bridge down below us. Ugh! The topo map I had was old and apparently the trail was rerouted with a stock bridge. We shook off the annoyance of over an hour of wasted effort, then climbed the switchbacks into the heating sun.
As we turned the corner into the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin we enjoyed the lush meadows and in particular the portions of the trail that traversed the granite slickrock. We then began to run into much more traffic. The trail was long in the heat of the day but the rest went without much excitement. I was very interested to see the underfit valley of Crater Creek which seems to have formerly held the San Joaquin until lava flowed into the valley and forced it to deflect.
We hiked through the burned forest and had a quick detour to Rainbow Falls. Now the trail was busy! We managed to jump on the first shuttle that arrived just as we did to Reds Meadow. It was a long shuttle ride standing the whole way but we made it to Main Lodge. Less than 5 minutes wait and we were on the free shuttle to Mammoth Village. Less than 5 minutes wait again and we were sitting on the free trolley to the lakes basin which dropped us off right at the car. I was quite impressed at the clockwork of the shuttles and how smoothly everything worked out given our improvisation.
A tasty pizza dinner and a relaxing evening with family topped off the trip. Coordination with Jeff did not seem like it was going to work out so we drove back to Riverside the next day. I would say Iva Bell Hot Springs ranks among the top 10% of hot springs I have visited. I was thrilled to finally be able to check it out. They were geologically fascinating, scenically impressive, and boasted several top quality soaks. Oh the mosquitoes though!
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