An Underwater Trip through Duckwater Hot Spring, Nevada

 The kids are always delighted when I say, "Let's go to Duckwater!" That's because they love going to the largest geothermal spring in Nevada, Big Warm Spring on Duckwater Shoshone Reservation. It's located about an hour and fifteen minutes southwest of Ely, Nevada. The water is a very pleasant 91-93 degrees Fahrenheit. You can learn lots more about the spring at this previous blog post.

We went in March, and although the air temperatures were chilly, we felt great in the water. We brought an underwater camera. Here's a view of the deepest part, with a hole leading into the bowels of the earth.

And here's Desert Girl, ready to go on an adventure floating downstream from the springhead.

And here's Desert Boy, also ready to go.

Apart from the springhead, most of the water is not particularly deep. There's a sandy bottom to start with, and algae on the sides of the channel. 

 

If you look at the bottom near where the channel starts, you can see little vents where more water is coming up from below.

Desert Girl went with a pool noodle to help on her float, and I have to say it was a nice addition. If you look at the bottom of the photo, you can see where the silty bottom has been stirred up.

Meanwhile, this is what it looks like on the surface. It sure is a different world underwater!

 A bit further on the kids spotted a can at the bottom of a deeper section.

Then it became a challenge to dive down and retrieve the can.

The viewing platform was nearby.

I switched it up for a bit and enjoyed the above water views.

And then it was back to underwater. The algae changed, becoming more filamentous.

It was also obvious that fewer people came this far.

 Cool-looking algae!

Now we were near the USGS stream gauge. 

Approaching from underwater.

Another view of approaching.

 They wanted to continue, so we kept on drifting.

 Another kind of algae.

We were at a diversion.

It looked like we could keep going, so we did!

We wanted to get to the waterfall, but it seemed like it would take forever. 

So we got out and walked back. The elusive waterfall will have to wait for another day!