Deep Creek Hot Springs

Beautiful place. Too crowded on weekends.

DO NOT SWIM HERE!!! I got in the springs and my entire head became itchy and I got a red rash all over my back. I went to the dermatologist and she said I got a bacteria from the springs. She told me NOT to go back there again. which I definitely will not! If you google folliculitis and deep creek hot springs, you’ll see a thread with a TON of people who have gotten this from swimming there. It’s itchy, grose, and aweful. not worth it!

Where to begin? Well, we took the Bowen Ranch Road route after attempting to use Route 173 and finding the road was closed. Bowen Ranch Road is entirely dirt, and can be uneven at times, so use caution. At the end of the road we reached a small building where we were charged $ 5 per person to park and visit the springs. The man was a little strange, but gave us a map and some hiking advice. We parked and started off!
The hike to the springs was a little over two miles and mostly downhill. We paid close attention to the map and info we got and took note of our surroundings (he said people get lost here often) and made it pretty easily. We then crossed the extremely cold creek and arrived at the springs!
We were pleasantly surprised to find 6 or 7 springs with varying temperatures and size. There were about twenty people there (we went on a Wednesday) and only four of them were nude or topless. We stripped down and spent the next few hours skinny dipping and hiking in the springs and nearby area. We felt very comfortable.
We then gathered our things and hiked back out.
SOME NOTES:
You’ll be sweating A LOT more than you realize in the springs. Your hike back is mostly uphill, and while it’s only a few miles, you’ll need a good bit of water. We’re experienced hikers and were surprised at how dehydrated we were, even after emptying our camelbaks!
Be cautious with bringing food in bags or backpacks. Some hikers next to us had thick high quality backpacks that they left near the springs, and when they went to leave they found that some squirrels had chewed through their bags to get some food!
It’s a great place to unwind. So strip down and have a blast!

Its Beautiful nature place but the guy There he making Money from every one I hope they make the street better and he make any public toilet where the hot spring many people and there are people they stay there for 2 and 3 days maybe more they need toilet I saw every he do it anywhere so disgusting

The guy who collects the parking ticket is extremely rude. He yells and points his fingers and waves his fist to customers who are paying the ask price ! He yelled: «Go away, leave me along, I’m trying to eat dinner.» This is the most miserable, mad, and rude guy I’ve ever seen.
Deep creek hot spring owner: this rude mean guy worked in your property at 7:00 pm on Feb. 15^th, 2016, he needs to be fired if you’d like any return customers to here. This guy should not do any job that is customer facing.

The guy charges you $ 10 a person… Total rip off! The road is not maintained at all! Deep holes in the dirt road and just hope your truck, suv, or whatever doesn’t flip over and roll off the cliff. We started started hiking and it wasn’t too bad. We expected naked people just not people having sex doggy style on the rocks? It was just disgusting… Overall experience was horrible! I will stick to the gorgeous hotsprings in the northwest that are free and well maintained. This place is a joke full of weirdos.

Pretty cool spot but be careful. Some people insist on wearing clothes. Why anyone would want to bask in mother natures most sacred phenomenon and hinder the purity of their bond with the primal earth by clinging to the modesty of civilized society is beyond me. Please understand that the nudists aren’t perverts or something to be gawked at. Its a natural place and some people want to enjoy it in their natural form. Dont come here with oppressive ideas about shame and modesty. Please leave your immature judgements at the trailhead.

It’s like a hot tub party… but in nature! With strangers aka new friends! Loved it definitely want to go back to camp a night

This is an awesome hike that is vastly different than your typical LA hike. Here’s the need-​to-​know: Bring a car that you don’t mind getting dirty and can handle dirt roads. An SUV would be most ideal. The hike is 4 miles long, round trip. Bring cash, because you have to pay the guy $ 5 to park on his property, which is how you get to the trail. Bring towels and bathing suits. There is a high probability of nudists being there, so be prepared for that.
Hiking down was easy, coming back is moderate. Once you get down to the creek, you have to cross a (pretty damn) cold stream/​river/​thing, but once you make it across, there are a bunch of hot spring pools. They are man-​made. Each pool has a different temperature, so find one that is comfortable for you and relaxxxxxx.
It’s quite an enjoyable hike and you feel very far away from everything, which is nice. Bring some beers and snacks and you have the perfect afternoon!

This place is a fake paradise. Looks and sounds fun but is filled with weirdos and narcs. Went down for a night and walked myself out of that place. The local sheriffs send down narcs and undercover volunteers to bust people for basically nothing. One narc was walking around asking people if they had «Drugs!!!» And passing out glow sticks to entice a party. I outed him and he admitted he was a narc to me when no one else was around. Be carful down there. On top of that… Creepers!!! Find other hot springs where you can truly chill! This place has bad energy. Ps clean up your trash. Keep nature clean if you want to enjoy it!!!

After going to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, I became obsessed with hot springs. Although the two can’t be compared as they’re vastly different, I love both for various reasons. I found Deep Creek on Unilocal and eventually gathered a group of friends to join me this past weekend. There are two routes to the hot springs, and we got directions here:
We decided to take the easier route from Bowen Ranch. The drive from LA is about two hours, only because there’s a very bumpy dirt road that you have to drive on for six miles. My Volvo S40 made it just fine, but it’d be faster and easier with an SUV or truck. Once we got to the ranch, you must stop because it’s private property. The owner of the land, Mike, was strict but overall welcoming. I’d read reviews about him being mean, chasing people away with a gun, but as long as you’re respectful and polite, you’ll be fine. It’s $ 5 per person to enter, $ 10 to camp overnight. I believe if you take the alternate (longer) route, there is no fee.
The hike is four miles roundtrip. Going there is easy and shouldn’t take long as it’s a downhill descent. Once you get to the creek, it’s best to strip down and cross on the right side, as the water is only about knee-​deep. If you cross on the left side, it’s waist-​deep. The water is freezing cold year-​round, so be prepared. After crossing, the hot springs are on the left side and there are five pools. We only stayed at one pool, which was around 80° F. There are cooler and hotter ones, but we were comfortable with the one. I’d also cut my foot crossing the creek and climbing the rocks barefoot, so I was in too much pain to move. We spent about an hour there and it was way too short, but we were tight on schedule. Give yourself at least two hours to fully enjoy the spring.
There will for sure be nudists there, but everyone is pretty friendly, talkative, and not shy. There was a good mix of clothed people and people fully naked, as well as only bottomless (?). Try not to stare, like me.
Going back to the car was a mission. It’s a steep incline and as someone who does weightlifting, this was pretty difficult for me and my thighs were burning. But I also have a hard time with cardio in general, due to my unfortunately tiny veins (thanks mom). Most of my friends made the ascent up with little problem, but it’ll take longer to get back up as I guarantee you’ll take several breaks. Next time, I’ll bring a hiking stick. I wasn’t sore at all after the hike — just extremely tired, but that’s probably because I was running on 40 hours of no sleep. Not recommended.
Overall, the hike wasn’t difficult. The hardest part was probably crossing the freezing cold creek, the hike back up, or even the long drive; but it’s all part of the very unique experience and I’d totally do it again (only if someone else drives next time)!
WHAT TO BRING:
— Hiking shoes with good grip
— Towel & bathing suit (unless you’re a nudist)
— Layering clothes (especially in winter)
— Lots of water as the hot springs will dehydrate you
— Sunscreen, bug spray, first aid kit & other general hiking/​camping necessities

I arrived pretty early on a weekday to Bowen Ranch, and when I reached the bottom of the hike there was a group of five that was heading back up, so I greeted them as they left. Well, as I began to cross the stream to the other side I noticed there were about three tents set up.
FYI overnight camping down by the hot springs is prohibited. You cannot set up overnight camp down at the hot springs. You are only allowed to camp at top at Bowen Ranch, and its $ 10 per person.
I could tell by the faces that they did not arrive this morning, and I kindly greeted someone and asked if they stayed overnight, and she told me her story how they had come the day before and that they had spent the night. I listened and acknowledged her share, and went about to enjoy myself and the hot springs. Anyways by afternoon, people started to show up. I don’t smoke cigarettes, but the majority here was smoking cigarettes, and other things because I saw them smoking with a glass pipe in their hands.
I don’t mind people smoking, but I disliked having to swim next to the cigarette butt floating in the water. I don’t know why but there was one guy (white guy, around 30 yrs old) who decided to bash in a small catfish’s head with a rock. I wish I did not see it happen, but he was yelling as he caught the fish, and then all of a sudden the dude picks up a rock and starts bashing the catfish’s head. That was not necessary, and I did not feel comfortable or safe.
Please keep in mind that If you decide to come here do not think your belongings will not get stolen. Someone will try to take your things if you leave it in the open. A guy tried to take someone else’s stuff. Luckily the guy spotted the man who was trying to take his thing. The hot springs is nice, but you have to be careful of the strangers lurking the waters.
Oh, and the hot springs is clothing optional. There wasn’t many, but one nude guy was in real good shape, and few nude girls. I left around 2pm, and there was about 3 more groups of people who were going down to the hot springs as I hiked back up to Bowen Ranch.
–1 star for overnight campers
–1 star for cigarette butt in the water
–1 star for smashing catfish head with rock
–1 star for thieves

This place is awful! What a waste of time! Please don’t go here. I repeat, PLEASE DON’T GO HERE! Especially people who come here to party, trash the beautiful scenery and have no respect for nature. I’m just gonna say it, I hate you guys!
I don’t mean to be all nazi about keeping the place clean but it really makes me mad to see people leave their trash in the springs. It’s okay to have fun but seriously, have some respect. I also talked to some of the locals here who were extremely unhappy about careless visitors who are putting the springs at risk of being permanently closed down. Please don’t let this happen. This place is amazing and it would be really sad if we can’t enjoy it anymore.

Ten thousand stars!
This is the most amazing place i’ve ever been to… hands down! To be one with nature and the energy around you is wonderful! So so beautiful, its paradise! Great people beautiful earth and GREAT VIBES! If you havent been, you MUST see this place!
For best results, bring Lucy with ya ;)

What a great place! Beautiful swimming hole with a variety of hot spring pools to soak in, remote location to keep out (most of) the riff-​raff, cool people to talk to, I could not ask for a better place to spend a warm summer day!
There isn’t much for me to add that hasn’t been covered in the other posts, but I will add in a few details about the actual campsite at Bowen Ranch since there wasn’t much there for me as I researched my trip.
Getting to the ranch is pretty easy, the road is not paved but our Toyota Corolla made it there no problem. After paying the fees at the gate, you have to drive another ½ mile to the camping area. Note that there is one pretty sketchy spot that may seem unpassable for a regular car, but is totally do-​able if you take the right line. If not, you can park your car there and walk the remaining 500 yards down to the campsites.
There are maybe 5 «developed» campsites (see my pic) with rock fire rings and picnic tables, if you get there early enough grab one of those. Otherwise, you can pretty much make your own spot anywhere in the general area and build your own firepit. Depending on the spot and your car, you should be able to drive your car right up to the site for easy unloading.
I asked about building a fire, and was told it was not allowed because of the high winds that day, but come nightfall everyone else had fires so we went ahead and made one too. I was sure to build up my ring as high as I could and keep the fire relatively low, so I wasn’t worried. I did not see anyone actually patrolling the campsite to enforce any of the rules.
Driving past that one crazy spot in the road was a bit nerve-​racking on the way out, but I put the Corolla in Hummer mode and cleared it easily by taking the high path on the left with plenty of momentum. Only scary part of the trip!

My suggestion… read and consider the reviews written by others. Driving in I thought the off-​road descriptions may have been a bit exaggerated, but once we finally got to Bowen Ranch… well the poor condition of the road made me pull off half way to the parking lot and walk the rest of the way. I was sure my Ford Fusion was going to bottom out. Yet when we got to the parking lot there were several cars no bigger than mine. My other suggestion is bring water shoes. If you’re a city boy like me, my bare feet just couldn’t handle the rocks. Otherwise a very pleasant and relaxing day meeting interesting people and soaking in reguvenative waters (plus all the stuff other reviews have listed)

It’s been 48 hours and some parts of me are still sore from the hike.
You have to off road to get to Bowen ranch. Farm folk probably wouldn’t consider it «off roading» but having grown up in a city, if its not asphalt then it’s off roading. Correction: you have to drive on a non-​asphalt road to get to Bowen ranch.
Once you get to Bowen ranch you pay $ 5 per person or $ 10 per person if staying overnight (from the other reviews it may seem that overnight also means anytime past sundown but I can’t vouch for that statement because I got there and left before sundown). Then you drive a little bit more on a non asphalt road and park by the trailhead or wherever parking is available nearest the trailhead.
The actual hike is doable going downhill.
Once you get to the river you have to cross it. You can either cross it 1 of 2 ways. It’s freezing water and you can choose to
1. Wade through it probably taking 10 – 15 steps in waist deep cold water. Or
2. Go a little down the river where it’s not as wide and have 2 – 3 ankle deep steps in the water.
I crossed the river by way of #2 and didn’t mind the cold water at all.
Hot springs were extremely hot. Like boiling hot. Like I felt like my innards were slowly being cooked like a boiled egg kind of hot. I could stay in them for 5 – 10 minutes top and then I’d plop out and relax. I think there are 6 hot springs. One of the hot springs was just lukewarm, that one was my favorite.
Heading back up the hike from the hot springs back to the car was strenuous. For endurance comparison, I run 2 miles every day/​every other day. Maybe it was the heat and feeling dehydrated but that was hard on me. Every few steps uphill I had to stop and recollect myself. When it levels out it becomes easier. It’s the steepness that I don’t have the power for; other people seemed to be hiking it just fine.
Other reviewers made comments about the crowd. If you’re from LA, sure, the crowd is different from the type of people you’re used to in LA. But I didn’t experience any sketchiness. When I went the people there seemed like hippies, bros, bro hoes, foreign, traveling, or part of a community group.
Oh and there’s naked people. Everywhere. The friend that I went with told me that before the drive to the hike. And I thought he used «naked people» as an expression to mean people in bathing suits. When I got there I realized he was being literal. Believe them when they tell you naked people will be there.

Went here for the first time yesterday with someone who has been here a few times before. Directions were found on the hiking site
under Deep Creek Hot Springs via Bradford Ridge Path.
Leaving at 9am from Orange County on the coast put us there at about 11am with no traffic. The hike itself to the hot springs was not a long hike (1hr — 1.5 hrs each way), but a pretty steep inclined one. Going to the springs, the incline was very steep downhill. The ground was uneasy and while carrying a back pack can add weight and tension to your whole body. I would say that although the hike itself is short, the trail is not for beginnings. I didn’t need to hit the gym that day because I did LEG DAY for this whole hike.
The hot springs itself were very nice and I was surprised how warm they were. Coming here on a weekday there was a total of about 15 other people, some naked some not, but relatively mellow. I didn’t see anyone acting rowdy or crazy; everyone was actually very friendly and talkative to us. I was clothed because I came with my female cousin, and well yea, that would have been awkward since we’re both from California and not Arkansas. Through out the hiking trail I did notice some trash and signs for what you bring in you must bring out aka they have no trash cans. The wrappers from our protein bars and food were put back in my backpack and taken home to be thrown away. Bring a towel to lay down on and dry yourself with, right near the springs is a small beach area. Bring a bathing suit, board shorts, extra shirt, etc. Going in early march the weather was perfect near the springs but cools down fast as the sun sets so either bring a change of clothes or light sweater. The hike back was much harder because that very steep hill down turned into a ⁷⁰⁄₈₀ degree angled hike up for a while. I had to stop a few times to catch my breath, and it can be extremely difficult for people bringing a lot of stuff to the hot springs.
Overall, since I’m located about 2 hours away I thought the hike was nice and that the springs were great to see and enjoy, but not necessarily worth the long drive for me. We met a few people from Hesperia, Victorville and closer by areas and I could see how they would love to enjoy this since it’s in their backyard, but someone coming from so far away we have plenty of beautiful hikes closer by. Luckily for me when I did get to the hot springs there weren’t many people there either and that I got to enjoy one of the hot springs with my cousin alone while others occupied the other two. If the hot springs get too crowded I could definitely see this as an unenjoyable experience. The hot springs are something that everyone should at least see once though, just be prepared for the steep inclines!

Here are some things you should know before getting started with Deep Creek Hot Springs:
— Read a few different reviews to get a sense of which route you want to take.
Here’s part of how to decide:
— Okay with strenuous hiking = Bradford Ridge
— Not okay with strenuous hiking, but okay for longer hiking, paying for entrance, and rutted out roads = Bowen Ranch entrance
Today, I took the Bradford Ridge route. It took us about 1 hour to get down and a little over 1 hour to get out. We were moving pretty quickly both times. It was a cool day, but I could see on a hot day that getting out of that canyon could be brutal. It is a very steep section of trail, perhaps ¾ of a mile, but the most intense and sandy ¾ of a mile I’ve ever hiked. Another reviewer said, «if you have questions about whether someone can do it, don’t do it» and I would echo that. We also got lost getting to the trailhead at first, so read those directions.
With that said, the hot springs were great. From what I could tell, here were the pools, which I’ve given affectionate names:
1) Little Hot Guy — the warmest of the pools, right at the very top as you are walking in. It really only had enough room for 1 – 2 people, huddled in it, but it was very hot.
2) The Walled Enclosure — the first major pool you come to. The temp was cooler than LHG, but it was bigger and felt super comfortable. It had enough space to comfortably fit 3 groups of 3 – 5 people, and had a bunch of nice rocks in it. Not deep enough to stand in, and also not as secluded as the lower pool.
3) The Big Kahuna — below TWE is a deep pool that I didn’t explore, but which was cooler in temp and able to be swum around in. It afforded the most privacy.
4) The Weird Cousin — this pool was part of a separate stream and area. It wasn’t really that warm, but was separated enough to provide more seclusion.
5) The Kiddy Pool — I really liked this one. Part of a separate complex further down by where everyone was camping, which had an easy access point to the cold creek, nice views of the granite.
It is a super cool spot. Lots of reviews made it seem like you had to be fully naked, which I wish had been the case so as to create that nudist environs. Everyone we saw was either in a swimsuit at first or fully clothed, which made it not feel like a fun nudist spot, but whatever. Everyone was very friendly. We came on a early January Friday, and there were maybe 5 – 6 groups scattered about.

Pretty interesting getting naked and showing off my hilariously sma– err, gigantic Asian dong in front of a bunch of strangers. But I made the mistake of going in late December, which meant two things: lots of shriveling and one absolutely freezing stream crossing at the end to get to the actual hot pools (which meant even more shriveling).
People are very friendly. Be naked or don’t be, nobody will judge either way. Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. Whatever.