Tecopa is a small, isolated settlement in the Mojave Desert populated mostly by seasonal RV travelers. It is located about 50 mile north of Interstate 15 and 70 miles south of the Death Valley National Park visitor center in Furnace Creek. The closest town is Pahrump, which is about 40 miles northeast, just over the border is Nevada. Tecopa has a few developed springs establishments where you can soak nude. There is the Tecopa Hot Springs Bathhouse, which is part of a county park. It has soaking areas that area segregated by gender, and swimwear is prohibited. (It is described under a separate listing.) There is also Delight's Hot Spa, where there are no swimwear requirement since there are no communal soaking spaces (i.e., you rent a private soaking pool).

Less than a 2-mile drive from the county bathhouse and Delight's, there is a small and rather humble soaking pool in the middle of the desert where you can soak for free, and it is commonly called the "Wild Springs" "or "Wild Spa" to distinguish is from the nearby developed soaking establishments. A single sunken concrete pool is locate next to a rough gravel road (which may be impassable after rain), and it is partially but not entirely shielded by desert scrub. The springs used to be commonly identified by a single palm tree that was next to the pool, but that tree blew down circa 2005. The small pool is square, each side no more than eight feet long. Nude soaking is well established. There is no shade, and it gets incredibly hot here, so an early-morning or late afternoon soak is best if you are there during the long, scorching summer season. This springs has at times been subject to temporary closure by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and there have been occasional rumors that the BLM plans to permanently close the springs, but so far that has not happened.

VISUAL RESOURCES

GPS: 35.8728N, 116.2191W

city, county, state, country  Tecopa, Inyo, California, U.S.A.

classification  2 (traditionally nude)

There are 3 placemarks related to this site.