desertislands.org (Exploring the Great Basin!)

Fish Springs and Indian Springs Canyon
Tooele/Juab Counties, Utah

We drove to Fish Springs on the power plant road that takes you past Topaz Mountain. When the pavement ends, it's an additional 23 miles on a fairly good dirt road to Fish Springs. It took about 2.5 hours to reach Fish Springs Wildlife Refuge from Orem using this route.

I'd heard about some hot springs just past Fish Springs, so I decided to find those first, and hit Fish Springs after. The hot springs were easy to find. Just look for an old bus north of the Pony Express road a few miles west of Fish Springs.

Watch where you step as you're walking out to them because what looks like solid ground can be deceiving. You may end up ankle deep in warm, stinky, black mud.

About 100 ft. north of the bus, is the first pool. The water is scalding hot, so don't jump in unless you're planning on ending it all in a very painful way. We got as close as we dared to the edge and we could not see the bottom. The water was crystal clear and we could see down a long way. It was scary standing on the edge, because the land around the pool is undercut by the water and it could break off.

There are two bathtubs embedded in the ground near the pool. By blocking off the flow of water into them and leaving it sitting for several hours, you could have a hot soak, but the bottom of the tubs is covered in a 3 inch thick scum of red algae and mud, so we decided it wasn't worth it.

Just past the first pool is an area that looks like it has 2 inch deep water. There was a 2X4 laying in it for people to walk on. As I walked along the board I found that in the middle of the shallow water was another deep, bottomless pool.

After the hot springs, we decided to take the road tour of Fish Springs Wildlife Refuge. Fish Springs consists of several large springs and green marshland that is ideal bird habitat for several hundred species of bird. Before entering, read the rules. There is no swimming, fishing, shooting, camping, or driving around after dark allowed. We took the self guided tour and saw many species of birds. I was unable to name most of the birds I saw. I could name blue herons and Canadian geese. This area would be a bird watcher's paradise. There are several facilities available including a soda machine, bathroom, and picnic area.

After fish springs the plan was to find a canyon in the seldom visited fish springs mountains. It became apparent quickly that very few people visit these mountains. We could see canyons everywhere as we drove along the eastern side, but there were no roads going into any of them. Finally, toward the South end of the range we spotted a very rocky dirt road heading toward a canyon. It was one of those roads that is traveled so infrequently that you have to pay extremely close attention so you won't lose it. We drove up this canyon until we encountered large rocks that appeared to have been deliberately pushed into the middle of the road. We moved the first few, but we finally encountered one that we couldn't move. Since we'd planned on camping in those mountains, we stopped right there with every intention of doing that.

After careful inspection of our surroundings we decided to go somewhere else because there were no flat spots without rocks to pitch a tent, there was no water or shade to be found, and it was the hottest part of the day. It was too hot to hike around or sit around. The air conditioned car was too tantalizing to pass up, so we decided to drive to Simpson Springs and leave the Fish Springs Range for Fall or Spring exploring.

We drove back to the Pony Express road and headed east toward Simpson Springs (about an hour's drive from Fish Springs). As we approached we noticed hundreds of strange creatures scattered like ants all over the road, hill, and valley. As we got closer we realized those creatures were Boy Scouts and their masters having some kind of jamboree or something. They all walked in the middle of the road unwary of our approaching vehicle. We weren't keen on the idea of camping with a bunch of stinky, noisy boy scouts, so we decided to go to Indian Springs Canyon on the West side of the Simpson Range.

The road up Indian Creek Canyon wasn't marked with a sign, but we were able to find it by trial and error. You definitely need a 4wd vehicle on this road due to several deep ruts, creek crossings, and large rocks. We went until we saw a fork in the road and took the right fork which took us to the Shangri-La of all camping spots. There was a small creek with a pool for bathing, green grass, flat ground, and shade. The only drawback was the millions of giant black Mormon crickets.

"The little-remembered mining camp of Indian Springs was located south of Simpson Springs, on the Overland Stage route north of Death Canyon almost on the Tooele-Juab County line. The springs there were a camping place for the Indians of Skull Valley long before the coming of Pony Express riders or miners. Some early day maps show them as Good Indian Springs, a name that leaves little to the imagination!

After silver was discovered in the Simpson Range in the late 1890's, a small but wild mining camp was established at Indian Springs. It had several well-built boarding houses, a store and a saloon where 40-rod whiskey was sold. The broken rock walls of one building still stand not far from the mouth of a caved mine tunnel. The ore veins were exposed at Indian Springs. They snaked their way across the mountain fronts for long distances, and were mined from the surface down wherever they turned or twisted, leaving dangerous shafts only a foot or two wide but hundreds of feet deep. Watch carefully where you walk, for they are a death trap for whoever falls in one".

We set up camp, took a bath, and hiked up the road further to find an old cabin, a collapsed house, tin shed, and a root cellar. There was evidence of mining activity all over the mountains. We were feeling lazy, so we didn't hike far. The Indian Creek Canyon road is supposed to go through to the other side of the mountain range, but we took the wrong fork in the morning which took us nearly to the top of the mountain, but not over it. We did get an incredible view from up there. We were running low on gas, so we went back the way we came and drove back home.

Return to Main Page