Gold Strike Hot Springs is a popular hike in the Las Vegas area and especially on a weekend of a holiday week, we knew we would want an early start to avoid the crowds. Getting an early start certainly had its advantages - we only saw a few people descending the canyon and had close to two hours to soak in one of the hot spring pools before the crowds arrived. Steve counted 200 people hiking in as we were hiking out.

The hiked was around 6.5 miles round trip with 1100 feet elevation loss/gain. The trailhead is just off of Highway 93 close to the Hoover Dam. At first the hike was pretty easy going as we made our way down Gold Strike Canyon. Eventually the canyon transitions from a wider canyon with a gravel/sand floor to narrower walls and a lot of boulders and a few pour overs that require some class 3 scrambling. I lost count of the number of ropes - but I think it’s around 8 - that were in place at some of the larger obstacles to give some aid. In a few places the rocks weren’t that difficult, but were very slick, which made it hard to get any purchase coming back up.
From my reading, there used to be large pools in the upper canyon. Earthquakes in the early 2000s altered and reduced the water flow in the upper Goldstrike Hot Springs and these pools no longer exist. The biggest and best pools are close to where Goldstrike Canyon meets the Colorado River. We chose to hang out in a nice and toasty pool in Goldstrike and we saw some people down by the Colorado (I think this isn’t as reliable due to river currents and I don’t think it’s as warm). We loved the hot springs - it was fun to soak in the canyon in such a scenic spot.

It took a little longer hiking out, just because some of the boulder obstacles were bottlenecks with so many people coming down. When we finished we drove into Boulder City to grab a bite to eat at The Dillinger. In the afternoon we walked the Historic Railroad Trail, which was a nice walk with views of Lake Mead. The railroad here was used for building the Hoover Dam - we walked through some of the original tunnels. We managed to fill our afternoon before cleaning up, picking up Norah from the airport, and grabbing one last dinner in Henderson at Settebello Pizzeria. We headed home the next morning - it was a terrific week!