A Drive to Desert Hot Springs and Small-Town Gems

Even for those of us who live in Las Vegas, it can be hard to remember that the desert is out there, in all its profound glory, when we’re saturated in the Strip’s artificial light and sound. 

Fortunately, all it takes is a drive. 

One of my favorite routes—for scenery, for mental detox—leaves Las Vegas and heads for Tecopa, California, deep in the Amargosa Desert, to the shadow of the Funeral Mountains outside of Death Valley National Park. There the traveler finds perhaps the best contrast to Vegas-style stimulation, spectacle, shimmy. A two-hour trip on the navigation apps, it really demands a full day. As in casinos, time gets a little bendy in the desert. 

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Start out west on Charleston Blvd towards Red Rock Canyon. Just before the road turns into State Route 159 you’ll be treated to a panoramic scene of sandstone peaks and the small gypsum mining town of Blue Diamond. Look out for the abundant population of burros, often seen grazing in the town’s park. You’re looking for Route 160—just past a Vegas favorite, Cactus Joe’s Plant Nursery, a magical seven-acre desert garden, complete with a labyrinth and a wedding chapel.  

When you turn onto Tecopa Road and head towards the California border, it begins with space: an expanse that orients you to another time and place. A sea of  soft creosote domes, the oldest living things, puncture the air with an earthy musk while Joshua trees lean in endless counsel. It’s your nervous system that thanks you, for this wide horizon, for obsidian and opal. It’s the sun, as five-star as any sold-out show on the Strip. It’s also what scientists call “the body schema,” the concept that our surroundings become a part of us through integration of the environment. 

You’re taking the desert inside you, so to speak. Its depth and brutality. You are seduced, without bankroll or gimmick, into the rhythm of highway and dust. 

Tecopa is named after a Southern Paiute leader who is remembered as a peacemaker. It’s an unassuming town known for its biodiversity, chill vibe, eclectic community (population 150), healing hot springs and China Date Ranch, a family-owned oasis teeming with lush palm orchards set against harsh badlands.  

Take the Old Spanish Highway until you pass through a narrow lunar landscape which ends in a small dirt parking lot, which itself backs up to the Slot Canyon Trail, a four-mile hike along the Amargosa, a hide-and-seek river that is mostly unseen but always felt. At the end, you’ll enter a twisting slot canyon with 15-foot-high rhyolite walls. 

Odds are, you haven’t yet seen another single soul. 

After basking in the borax bluffs and ancient lake beds, you’ll want something sweet. Head back to China Date Ranch and for one of their famous homegrown date shakes. Be sure to explore the gift shop too, where both Edward Abby’s Desert Solitaire and Ken Layne’s Desert Oracle are on the bookshelf like loyal hiking pals. 

Finally, it wouldn’t be the middle of nowhere without roadside hot springs tucked into a vast valley of alkaline salt flats, surrounded by marshlands and mud. Nothing but ecology for miles. There are two ways to enjoy the hot springs: book a pass for an indoor mineral pool for $25/ day (overnight is also an option). Tecopa Hot Springs Resort, Shoshone Inn and Delight’s are all popular choices. Or you can visit hot springs is their natural habitat— a short walk off Hot Springs Road, where you can get into the earth. The latter option, though audacious, is more transformative (clothing optional).  

While soaking in 87-degree minerals, you might sink into a quiet so deep you’ll hear air sifting through hawk wings. No bells or whistles but a jackpot in its own right. Make sure to bring towels and sandals.

All that geothermal jazz works up an appetite. Grab a bite at the Kit Fox Cafe, a local gem, before heading back to Las Vegas. If timing is right you’ll leave with the sunset at your back, bathing the mountain range with alpenglow, an optical phenomenon that ignites the landscape with stunning tangerine radiance. 

Neon ain’t got nothing on the desert. One show nightly.