Ruby Hot Springs 5/1/23

Now we skip all the way to May and Nevada. This place definitely rated a photo! It’s also called Smith Ranch hot springs, and the road in was snowy, muddy and bad this particular time of this particular year. I’ve been to several Nevada hot springs, and a number of them have spider mites. I’ve never been bitten at Ruby hot springs, which is a plus. The main pool, which looks small in this photo, is actually sizable and deep. You have to swim across it as it’s too deep to touch bottom, and it’s nice and warm. There’s a large trough down a gentle decline to the north of the main pool where you can soak as well, and the water is even hotter there.

That tiny bit of water in the nearer distance on the right is the main pool. This photo was more about the mountains, which are gorgeous, than the pool. In the background is part of the Ruby National Wildlife Refuge. The campsite I stayed in is on a road that traverses the back of the refuge, but that road was closed at this time of the year and I came in from the north past Smith Ranch instead.

Here’s a better view of the pool. You can see from the tire tracks that people drive right down to the pool, but when I was there it was soft and muddy and I wouldn’t have driven down. Magical view, right?