Alvord Hot Springs — Local services in Burns

A small outpost to the west of the desert is where you’ll find the hot springs, along with a little store, a restroom, and some metal military bunkers. Soaking in the springs cost $8 per person, and using the private access road to the desert playa is an additional $5 per vehicle. There is another road not far away that is free to use.

The springs themselves are a pair of concrete pools, one enclosed, and a little metal siding shack/changing room with no doors. Water can be controlled by pipes that will added hot or less hot water. There are a couple benches for you to sit or store your stuff. The path to the springs is dimly lit at night, so a flashlight is probably a good idea.

While I’m sure the store is a welcome asset for those last minute supplies, the whole place screams “money grab.” The military bunkers are a bit of an eyesore and looked scarcely furnished for the price to rent them; not to mention probably blistering hot when it’s almost 90 degrees out. And while, it is somewhat fitting for the the desert theme, I’m not sure a Tremors re-enactment is necessary. We were told we needed to pay for camping - which is free on the desert - so be careful with this. When we mentioned that camping is free we were told it was to allow us access to the springs and private road, which was actually cheaper to pay for a-la cart (see above).

We soaked for a while with an older gentleman who used to frequent the springs a decade ago and he was pretty upset with the commercialization of the hot springs. I can see where he is coming from, but it’s still a pretty good deal for the ability to soak under one of the most amazing night...

We’ve been visiting here ever since the owners started taking care of the place and charging a fee. I absolutely support paying a small fee to help keep it maintained, but it has really gotten out of control and is now just about greed. During our most recent visit, it was ridiculously packed with people who don’t understand what leave no trace means and the entire place didn’t appear to be maintained as well as it has been prior. The soaking tubs definitely hadn’t been scrubbed anytime recently. The girl who seemed to be in charge was very aggressive and unfriendly. The area is littered with MASH units that are merely big metal containers with some questionable beds. $60-80/night. Or you can choose a tent site for $30/night. And there aren’t any facilities here beside the one toilet by the office, so I’m a little confused what all of that money goes toward. #greed $8/day for a soak, but you can’t soak after 10pm if you’re not paying them to camp there. Who wants to soak during the day, in the hot desert, in the middle of summer? Then another $5/day to use their access road. This might be the only fee I am a little bit ok with. There is a free access road a bit south at Frog Spring, but you’ll need at least an SUV to make it through. It’s not horrible, but there is a rough spot. This use to be a peaceful place, but ever since the focus changed from maintaining to profiting, the crowds being drawn there don’t understand what it means to respect the land and definitely aren’t prepared for the environment. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a luxury hotel pop up in the next few...

The hot springs were beyond amazing and photogenic, but dang, the lady who was managing the location went out of her way to be disrespectful, rude and repetitive. We had rolled in at about 5:00AM, attempting our best to be as quite as possible without waking anyone up (which we successfully did). We also had intention to pay whatever fees were necessary. When the sun rose, we all woke up and she was right there to scold and rant on us for coming in so early and "waking everyone in the campground up and causing multiple complaint reports" (her words). She insisted that we had come in at 3:00AM and were slamming our doors, shining lights and yelling. She charged us for camping and soaking in the hot springs, which we happily payed. Later during our soak, she came back over to scold us once again for "falsifying" our payment information on the payment forms. We cleared that up and the problem was that the payment forms were damp and our pen inc speared. After checking in and apologizing with other camp mates, none of them seemed to have even noticed us making a "racket" in the middle of the night. Confirming her lies. This Hot Spring was something we had literally driven 10+ hours through Nevada to experience on our way home, and to be greeted with lies, constant scolding and harassment was an extreme turn off. On the upside though, Brett, who was managing the Hot Springs with her for the day was extremely cool and understanding of our situation, he even opened the Hot Spring early for us and made a few jokes to lighten the mood....