Baileys Hot Springs in Nevada
Camp Nevada: I’m talking with Heidi today. She’s the Manager at Baileys Hot Springs in Nevada. How’s it going this afternoon, Heidi?
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Heidi: Good, how are you?
Camp Nevada: I’m having a great day. We’re starting to get the cool down here, in Minnesota, and so these hot springs are sounding pretty good to me. That’s for sure.
Heidi: That’s good. You should come out and see us.
Camp Nevada: I would love to. Why don’t we start with how long Baileys Hot Springs has been there and how it got started?
Heidi: Okay. Originally it was built by the railroad, and then later was used by the miners. They were built in 1906, and there’s three private baths. And the miners used to go up inside the bathhouses and use the bathhouses for laundry and bathing and whatever necessities they needed for that time with the hot water.
Camp Nevada: Okay. And what’s the temperature of them?
Heidi: We have three separate pools. We have a larger one that’s about 98 degrees. We have one that is about 104 to 106. And then we have one that’s 101 to 103 degrees.
Camp Nevada: 106. That’s starting to get pretty warm, huh?
Heidi: Yeah.
Camp Nevada: Yeah. So, how is it that you have private baths? There’s just buildings built over them?
Heidi: Yeah, the houses were built over them and quite some time ago. We had the brick dated and it’s actually 1910 is what they’ve been dated.
Camp Nevada: Okay. What types of camping do you offer there then?
Heidi: We’d had up to 300 campers. We didn’t know we could fit that many people, but we did have a Tough Mudder event at the ranch north of us, and we ended up with, in between RV and camping, 300 people staying here at one time.
Camp Nevada: Oh, did you run the Tough Mudder?
Heidi: No, I didn’t. I had to run the Park.
Camp Nevada: Oh, okay. I ran it a couple years ago and I can’t think of anything that would have felt better after that than a hot spring bath.
Heidi: It was nice because the cold water, and then we had warm outdoor showers so that people didn’t dirty the springs, so they did stay nice and clean.
Camp Nevada: Yeah, because people are filthy after that. That’s for sure.
Heidi: Yeah.
Camp Nevada: What are some of your favorite attractions in and around that area in addition to the hot springs there?
Heidi: Okay. Well, we have a lot of travelers that come from Yosemite and go into Death Valley, but this seems to be on the favorite stops when people do discover this place. They like to spend time here. We’ve got about 90 acres of property. We’re probably only using about one or two of it. And we’ve got some teepees that we rent out for 50 dollars a night with cots and slide-in carpet. We of course we don’t providing heating or blankets or anything like that, but we do have the teepees available. So, certainly we had somebody come through. We do have an entrance to an ATV trail.
Camp Nevada: Okay.
Heidi: Just across the street, where you can ride your ATVs. And that was just done this last year.
Camp Nevada: Okay.
Heidi: And then we also have a lot of rock counting in the area, where you would be able to pick out different types of rocks. Me, myself – I’ve actually found a lot of petrified wood on our trail just across the street, and some.
Camp Nevada: Okay. Now, can the guests there go hiking on the rest of that property?
Heidi: Yes, we do have one private area that we save for the owners. They have plans for it, but we are pretty open about letting people explore our property.
Camp Nevada: Okay. And are you open year round there, Heidi?
Heidi: Yes, we are.
Camp Nevada: Okay, that sounds good. And do people need to reserve a campsite or is it first come, first served?
Heidi: Mostly for the RVs, because we are limited. We have about 12 working sites, and then we have two dry camp areas, where you could either park a vehicle or a car or anything like that. Every once in a while we’ll get a trucker that’ll come in just to use the soak or if he wants to park overnight, they can do that also.
Camp Nevada: Okay. Well, that sounds great. Thank you so much, Heidi, for chatting with us today to tell us about Baileys Hot Springs in Nevada.
Heidi: You’re welcome.
