Hot Creek

Wayne E. Kirch Wildlife Management Area

(map link)

The Kirch WMA boasts wildlife viewing, but not hiking, according to my handy Ely District Recreation Opportunities Guide from BLM. The district boasts two of these free to visit Nevada Department of Wildlife facilities that cater to migrating waterfowl, the hunters that might get a few, and birdwatchers galore. Fishermen too. Road signs have been provided to help get them there, too! There is no camping except at the free Dave Deacon Campground. I started the day making an animal trail approach to Whipple Cave until I got enough signal to look it up and find out about the 80 foot rappel required for entry, so I got to the campground a little earlier than expected. I decided to wander over to Hot Creek in the afternoon and found that there is a little bit of hiking trail here. I ended up making a couple trips over while I was at the reserve.

00: black bird with speckled tummy — Birdwatching begins at "home" with one of the numerous European starlings hanging around the campground cottonwood trees.

I set off on about a mile of rather flat road to get from the campground to the creek.

02: sage and peak — Off on well maintained compacted road in the direction of Hot Creek Butte.

I wasn't too keen on walking the road even if I seemed to be the only one on it. There's some random old roads and I turned down one with a hump on it to prevent current usage. It was going more directly to where the spring source is marked for Hot Creek. I had to navigate a range fence (they graze cattle for weed control, but don't want them in the creek) and some tough but low vegetation to get all the way to the water, so not a recommended approach.

04: water and grass — Hot Creek among the grasses.

I actually made my way toward a sign I'd spotted down by the water, so I did arrive at a sort of trail beside it. There is one very short hiking trail in this place. The sign focused on the rare fish that live in these warm spring waters.

05: speckled dace — White River speckled dace, which are tiny!

Little streams of water come in from the side and big holes can be found in the creek bottom. There's lots of water sources. I put my fingers in a few and found that they weren't all that warm. It was breezy and cool for me in the air, so maybe that affected things.

06: spring water upwelling — Water upwelling at springs south of the marked start of the creek.

07: creek and peak — Hot Creek with Hot Creek Butte.

08: snail shells and part of — Snails, in shell form, were in the bottom too.

10: big hole — Another water source for the warm flow.

11: numerous fish — The fish were numerous, but skittish and hard to photograph.

13: environments — The dirt edge of the rocky creek is interesting.

The waters did contain one, single, floating bird. It quacked to itself in the weeds and I was able to track it down.

14: black and white — American coot hiding in the weeds.

15: bird goes away — And the same American coot zooming away.

One sign was about invasive species. It includes mention that even the cleanest human body coming into these waters can cause problems with the native fish. I expect that if folks get into too much stomping around, the bottom feeding fish don't have much to eat.

16: red lobster of small size — Crayfish were among the example invasives. I only saw the dead ones.

17: shallow water with grass and duckweed — Much of the creek is more sheltered environment with the grasses (still green where they are warm) growing up and gathering duckweed.

18: bird of prey — Just barely caught the northern harrier as it flapped past on the other side of the fence.

19: little bird — Harrier food... er, white-crowned sparrows.

21: grass clumps in water — A little more of the creek and the green-in-the-water grass.

Past the last of the three interpretive signs along the creek, I came to the designated swim area. It was a little surprising after reading the sign about humans being bad for the fish, but it makes a bit of sense. Designating an area helps localize the effect that will happen. The bank is hardened with rocks, so the creek doesn't expand with each bather and it's a bit easier to access.

23: fish and rocks — Fish among the rock hardened bank.

Fish at the swimming hole were not skittish at all. They even nibbled at my feet a little. I've heard that fish don't go far along their creeks and here is the proof for these.

24: little fishies — Finally an okay picture of the slightly larger White River springfish.

25: little fish — Hello little striped one! There's some of the smaller ones on the bottom left.

26: fish around feet — Not a bit afraid of the big creatures.

And with my feet nice and clean, I returned to camp on the wide path and excellent road.

27: road and trees — Cottonwoods were planted in the campground which makes it easy to spot from afar.

Friday, 17 Nov 2023

On my second wander over to Hot Creek, I kept to the good road except for a random dirt alternate that I'd found on the way back, plus I cut across the first loop as I had done on the way back. And once I got there, I did a little better job of documenting the creek. It doesn't hurt that the sun was doing a better job of shining.

00: sticker on a pole — Part of the Basin and Range Trail, eh? I've heard of that one! Or perhaps a one...

Slide through the V slot in the fence and there's an information sign about the designated swimming area and a very wide trail to it.

01: steam on the water — Steam is ever so slightly visible coming off the water.

02: bright blue in tan — The rock hardened bank around the swimming hole just below the stream gauge.

04: fish and a snail — The little fishes swim past a smaller snail.

05: blue and green and tan — Heading upstream, where the grass still grows happy in the warm water and not above.

06: snails on grass blades — More snails clinging to that green.

07: pulled blade — Getting a good look at the tiny snails.

08: tiny fish — The fish do live among the grasses too.

09: flat with a dip in the middle — The biggest hole of them all. Not the water area, but the funnel of the bottom where spring water is surely coming up.

10: shells of snails — Another snail, but I only found the shells of this one.

I got to noticing some strange movements on the creek bottom. I even took a few videos that are combined below.

12: sandy spots among darker — The light spots where water comes up are not static. It moves like a living thing.

14: green bottom — Lots of green, a bit of a different environment. Is this where to find the bottom feeders?

15: little fishes — Looks like all the same sorts of fishes to me.

17: deeper — Another big funnel along the creek.

With a little care because the trail was a little more flooded than on the first day, I made it down the ever thinner trail all the way to the end. The trail actually wrapped around and started down the other side.