Warm Springs

Gotta love Southern Utah....while our friends to the North are building snowmen, we are swimming. Outside. And it's almost Halloween!!

On Friday the kids were out of school. So I took a day off from clinic, abandoned my homework and we spent the day playing. The kids and I met with four other families and traveled to a place called Warm Springs, south of Mesquite in Moapa Valley. Coming upon Warm Springs is like finding a patch of sweet, succulent strawberries among a field of thistle. It is a hidden desert oasis, full of sweet fun. We swam in a natural hot springs pool (with no chlorine!) and ate a picnic of turkey sandwiches, sweet grapes and chocolate chip cookies. After lunch we swam some more, watched the kids play volleyball and ultimate frisbee and explored the nearby river, which was swift and warm. The banks were covered on both sides with a canopy of huge towering palm trees and gave the feeling one was exploring the Congo. We kept our eyes open for alligators. (Hey, it could happen. Read this in the Hurricane Valley Journal.)

All for the low, low price of $2 per person.

After we left Warm Springs, Janessa, Stockton, Landon and I ran some errands in St. George, grabbed some dinner at Panda Express and then plopped down on the couch in front of our big screen TV and watched Meet the Robinsons. We were all tuckered out.

Thanks Beatty's, Spendloves, and Heaton's. It was fun to be with you.


Kelli Spendlove


Janessa and Landon vying for the rebound


Teen basketball


We supplied our own good-lookin' lifeguards!!


Stockton's collision with the bottom of the pool


A little history of Warm Springs

Warm Springs was inhabited in the late 1800's by Indians, outlaws and prospectors. It was a source of drinking, bathing and irrigation water as well as a place for ceremonial rites. A large ranch called Stone Cabin Springs was built by a fugitive bank robber from Texas. In the 1950's, a man named Francis Taylor built a large mansion that still currently exists on the property and changed the name of the area to Warm Springs Ranch. In 1968, shortly after the death of Taylor, Howard Hughes flew over the area in a test flight and purchased the entire Warm Springs Ranch. Although he owned the ranch for over 8 years, Hughes never set foot upon the property. After Hughes died in 1978, the LDS Church purchased over 450 acres and tried to begin a Welfare Farm. The farm was unsuccessful, and the church eventually sold all but 73 acres. It now exists as a recreation area for church youth groups, scout groups, family reunions, etc.

Warm Springs has two swimming pools, both of which are fed by naturally warm water maintaining a constant year round temperature of 84 degrees. Each week, the missionary couple who run the ranch empties, cleans and scrubs the pool. On Sunday, they open the flood gates and refill the pools. It is reported that the Springs produce 3 million gallons of water a day, or 3000 gallons an hour. The ranch also has a large grassy soccer and volleyball field, an amphitheater, picnic tables and grills, and a playground. There are private camping areas each with their own covered picnic table, firepit, grassy area, and running water.
Info from "History of Water-Resources Development Within the Warm Springs Area Near Moapa, Nevada"