By Rob Samuelsen
One of the questions that I get asked, more often than not, is “how do I find out about some of the places I go?” Unlike most people who watch TV or play video games, my obsession is to talk to people, look at maps, review blogs, find reports, and read books about the area. When I fly, I try to look out the window and when I drive, each side road incites a ping of adventure. The truth is, most Jeep roads are made to access water tanks, power lines, or abandon mines. Rarely are Jeep roads put in for scenic views.
Recently, I was reading an old report on natural springs in Pima County. One spring caught my attention because it was both a hot spring and a travertine water flow. Finding a travertine hot spring is like finding a four-leaf clover in endemic space – two coinciding rare events wrapped into one. Nogales spring is located in the northwestern foothills of the Whetstone mountains on the very eastern boundary of Pima County. In fact, it’s only a few feet from the county line. While not particularly remote, getting to it was practically a lunar landing mission! Every time I tried, I was blocked by locked gates as I crossed a puzzle of private, county, state, and federal lands. Each landowner seemed to define their space with fences, warning signs, and locks. My frustration was undoubtedly shared by others as evidenced as the peppered signs shot up by gun toting adventure seekers.
After northern and southern attempts to find Nogales Spring and having learned the location of sneaky gate-free double track ranch roads from the east, I was able to narrow down my options and hone into an open route to my final discovery. It was a four hour 4-wheel drive route following power line, mining, and ranch roads to this magical natural water source. After two hours marked by my GPS, I could finally see the riparian growth from a road above my destination. The map marked a sidetrack to the spring, but it was very heavily over-grown causing a few additional desert pinstripes on my trusty old mechanical steed from Detroit. The last 100 yards was a biped scramble through bramble leaving my body with a few pinstripes of my own!
Hidden by extensive overgrowth, I finally found Nogales Spring. I could see the travertine from a distance and beneath a small drop-off, was a luscious pool of water complete with water skeeters. The water was not flowing across the travertine above, but there was a reasonable trickle of water flowing northward from the pool below. I followed the stream for several hundred feet until the brambles cursed me, and the moisture slipped beneath the surface. The water was unperceptively warmer, and the travertine was underwhelming but indeed I had found it and had overcome the myriad of obstacles for this mini adventure.
While this obsession of mine might not be the glamour of Hollywood, I enjoy the process as much as I do the result. I like the research, the planning, and the effort. But mostly, I like the adventure.
