Exploring and Informing: Hot Springs Canyon

3rd falls

A popular campground, a dry climate, huge springs, and a rarely visited canyon. Hot Springs Canyon is a unique canyon in this part of the Santa Ana mountains. Deep, twisting narrows harboring a nearly year-round stream with a rich riparian habitat that is paralleled only to the north at Harding Canyon, and to the south beyond the Santa Margarita River, but is unique in the Ortega Corridor. I've been here several times, and every time I find it more amazing. There are four waterfalls before a large impassable fall down about 20 feet into a deep pool that would require rock climbing to bypass, each one a demonstration of the beauty of water. Once I was even here when the depths of the summer drowned this idyllic location and followed a muddy trough until the first deep pool and turned back due to the heat. Not even this horrific dryness took away from the amazing island of verdancy this canyon boasts. These pictures are from three trips; one on December 24, one in January, and one in August.

Shrubbery

It should be made clear that this is not an easy hike. This is not because of distance, or elevation change, but because it is mostly bushwhacking through dense undergrowth, at times through a jungle of poison oak and over stream bed cobbles. There is some climbing and exposure, and it is very, very slow going. Past the first fall, the growth gets thicker and the going is slower. It is very hard not to get wet when the creek is flowing!

The portero at the head of the canyon

This was the first water on this trip.

Small falls

The path becomes quite rocky at times

Just below this crystal clear pool...

Is the first major waterfall, over 25 feet high.

Its coated in a thick later of moss, so the amount of water flowing down it doesn't show.

It has two stages, with a 4 foot deep pool in the middle.

This is where most people stop their hike.

Both pools. they make for a great place to cool off on a hot day!

Rapids below the falls

Water spreads out here across the bedrock.

Water at dusk

They call this live forever.

Glowing sycamore above the canyon

Rounding a bend in the narrows

Another small falls into another great swimming hole

One of the most picturesque falls here.

There are a lot of falls in this part of the canyon.

Tranquility

Around a few more bends and a hair-raising bypass, we reached the
end of the line: a 20-foot impassable fall down slick rock into
a perfect pool of water enclosed in a grotto of stone.