"The Hot Springs"

A hot spring right alongside the Little Humboldt River, Nevada, between Paradise Valley and Chimney Dam Reservoir. The title is the name as it appears on the 7.5' USGS topo map--kind of generic! The contorted rock around is travertine, a freshwater limestone deposited by the spring over time. The unsavory-looking greenish-rusty floating circular things are not lily pads but algal mats. This spring is cool enough to support thermophilic algae, but it's too hot for anything else. Downstream, where the outlet flows into the Little Humboldt, people have improvised a hot tub (inset), but we didn't try it.