A panoramic picture from the hills above Mercey Hot Springs.

The final leg of our trip was pretty relaxing, which was the plan. We left Barstow fairly early Tuesday morning and drove to Firebaugh with only a couple of stops along the way. We pulled in to Mercey Hot Springs in the late afternoon to beautiful 60° weather.

The soaking tubs at Mercey — Looking out from the soaking tubs

We settled Cookie into her space, then donned our suits and headed to the soaking tubs. It felt so good to settle into the hot, healing waters. There’s also a pool heated by the same thermal spring and we alternated between the hot tubs and the pool. The first night we were tired from the drive - it’s always a little nerve-wracking to drive on the freeways with the large trucks and the idiots who insist on passing on the right before we’ve had a chance to make sure we’re clear of the truck we were passing.

Wednesday was our first full day at the hot springs and we had a nice morning soak, then some breakfast and then took a hike around the 100 plus acres. We saw a lot of large ground squirrels and their nests in the next hill over, but the highlight was the very large bobcat we saw and followed, from a very long distance, along the same ridge. Mercey has a disc golf course and we were roughly following it and looking for their new labyrinth when I spotted the bobcat walking ahead of us. At first I thought it was a mountain lion it was so big! But when we used the binoculars we saw that it was instead a very large bobcat. I think it never knew we were there - we stayed well away and the wind was blowing our scent away from it. It walked along casually, so either it was completely used to humans (in an area with few people?) or it just never knew we were there. We found the labyrinth and lost the cat at about the same time.

The hills above Mercey Hot springs — The hills above Mercey Hot Springs

We soaked that afternoon and evening, then built a campfire and sat and listened to the owls hoot and enjoyed a glass of wine. Mercey is very quiet - there’s no cell service and very little WiFi. There’s also no development other than the hot springs. It felt great just to be.

Thursday morning we had one more soak, then packed up and headed home. We arrived in the late afternoon and it felt great to be back. Sadly, everything here is so dry - all of my plants need water. It’s nice and warm and green, but dry. All that early rain doesn’t mean anything if we don’t get some more before summer.

I came back to a very busy real estate market. I had a lovely break but it seems things are still as hot as when I left. I spent Friday playing catch up and getting organized for the week to come. I had a showing on Saturday and another listing went into escrow later in the afternoon. Looks like it’s still a good time to sell - and I’m back home and ready to help if you need me.

Mercey Hot Springs and Home