Adventure Child operates on lands that have been home to Indigenous peoples since long before Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, or Instagram ever existed. The hot springs our guests love are part of much older relationships—between Native communities, the river, and the living earth itself.
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of the Colorado River and Great Basin regions have moved through this landscape, following water, game, and seasonal plants. Springs and seeps were never just "spots on a map"—they were relatives, teachers, and sources of life.[1]
Many tribal traditions describe water as having spirit and agency: it listens, responds, and can bless or harm. Hot springs, where heat and mineral-rich water rise from deep underground, are often understood as places where the earth’s power comes close to the surface.[2][3]
Hot Springs as Sacred Medicine
Long before anyone called them "natural spas," hot springs were and are places of healing and ceremony.[2][4]
- Some Ute communities refer to mineral hot springs as "Big Medicine," a reflection of their role in treating illness, exhaustion, and spiritual imbalance.[4]
- In other traditions, people would fast or pray before entering the waters, acknowledging that they were stepping into a sacred space, not just a warm pool.[2][5]
- Springs might be visited for specific reasons—recovery after a long journey, grief, preparation for important life events, or community rituals.[6][7]
For many tribes connected to the Colorado River, these waters remain part of an extended ceremonial landscape that includes mountains, canyons, petroglyph sites, and song trails.[1][8]
Story, Song, and Responsibility
In the desert, water is never random. Springs often sit at the heart of origin stories and ceremonial songs that explain how the world came to be and how people should live in it.[5][8]
- Among Southern Paiute / Nuwuvi communities, sacred songs describe journeys across the land, tying specific places—springs, passes, rock formations—into a web of meaning and responsibility.[9][8]
- Some springs are associated with birth, healing, or women’s ceremonies; others with powerful beings that require visitors to show extra care and humility.[6][10]
- These stories are not "folklore from the past" but living knowledge that continues to guide tribal members’ relationships with the river and its hot springs today.[2][11]
Modern Pressures on Ancient Places
Tourism has exploded in the Southwest. Social media loves hot springs: steam, canyon walls, blue-green water, perfect for a reel. But many Indigenous leaders warn that unmanaged visitation can harm both the land and the cultures tied to it.[2][6]
Common concerns include:
- Trash, human waste, and sunscreen contaminating fragile spring ecosystems.[4]
- Graffiti and rock carving at sites that hold petroglyphs or ceremonial significance.[5][11]
- Crowding, alcohol use, and loud behavior in spaces tribes consider sacred or healing-focused.[6]
PSA: Bringing glass into the park can result in a $5,000 fine. Recently, a hiker died on the Goldstrike Trail. Please bring sufficient water or hire a qualified wilderness first-aid guide. Rescue by helicopter is extremely expensive, and cell phone service is often unavailable.
In response, tribes and conservation partners are working to protect specific hot springs from development, overuse, and extraction—arguing that damage to these places is also damage to their spiritual and cultural lifeways. (1)(6)
How Adventure Child Chooses to Show Up
At Adventure Child, guiding guests to hot springs is a privilege, not a right. These places are older than any outfit, permit, or company—and our goal is to help people experience them in a way that honors that depth.
Here is how we approach it:
Acknowledgment
On our trips and materials, we name that these landscapes are part of the ancestral and ongoing homelands of Indigenous nations connected to the Colorado River and surrounding desert.[1][12]
Education on the Water
Guides share cultural context at a high level—how many tribes view hot springs as sacred, healing, and powerful—without claiming to speak for any nation or revealing stories that are not ours to tell.[2][5]
Respectful Behavior Guidelines
We ask guests to:
- Keep voices low and avoid treating the springs like a party spot.
- Pack out everything, including micro-trash, and never carve or stack rocks at cultural sites.
- Avoid glass and limit products (lotions, heavy sunscreens) that can pollute delicate waters.[4][11]
Listening to Indigenous Leadership
When tribal nations, cultural offices, or land managers set access rules or request limits around certain hot springs, we take those directions seriously and adjust how and where we operate.[1][13]
An Invitation to Visit Differently
For many Adventure Child guests, soaking in a canyon hot spring is a highlight of their time in Nevada and along the river. The view is incredible; the water feels amazing; the photos are unreal. But underneath all of that is a deeper layer: generations of people who prayed, healed, and told stories around these same waters.[2][5]
When you step into a hot spring with us, the invitation is simple:
- Slow down.
- Notice the rock, the steam, the flow of the river.
- Remember that you are entering a place that has been sacred to others long before you, and will be after you leave.
If we do our jobs well, you leave not just relaxed—but more connected, and more committed to honoring the Indigenous relationships that make this landscape what it is.
[1] Tribal Interests in the Future of the Colorado River. (2025). Native American Rights Fund. https://narf.org/tribal-interests-colorado-river/
[2] Colorado Experience: Sacred Hot Springs. (2025). Southern Ute Indian Tribe. https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/2025/10/17/colorado-experience-sacred-hot-springs/
[3] Southern Paiute Ceremonies and Grand Canyon Volcanos. (2024). Research Open World. https://researchopenworld.com/earth-birthing-geoscapes-southern-paiute-ceremonies-and-grand-canyon-volcanos/
[4] Colorado Hot Springs With Heritage. (2026). Colorado.com. https://www.colorado.com/articles/colorado-hot-springs-heritage
[5] Indians 101: Sacred Places in the Great Basin. (2012). Daily Kos. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/3/29/1078844/-Indians-101-Sacred-Places-in-the-Great-Basin
[6] Ha’Kamwe’ – Sacred Land Film Project. (2023). Sacred Land Digital Film Project. https://sacredland.org/hakamwe/
[7] Colorado Experience: Sacred Hot Springs. (2025). Rocky Mountain PBS. https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/colorado-experience/colorado-experience-sacred-hot-springs
[8] Bringing Creation Back Together Again: The Salt Songs of the Nuwuvi. (2024). Mojave Project. https://mojaveproject.org/dispatches-item/bringing-creation-back-together-again-the-salt-songs-of-the-nuwuvi/
[9] Southern Paiute (and Chemehuevi). (2025). Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/southern-paiute-and-chemehuevi
[10] Little Colorado River and Indigenous Cultures. (2023). Arizona Central. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2023/06/30/little-colorado-river-key-indigenous-cultures-fish/701
[11] Native American History at Red Rock Canyon. (2025). Southern Nevada Conservancy. https://southernnevadaconservancy.org/native-american-history-at-red-rock-canyon/
[12] Exploring Wild Spaces and Indigenous Culture in Nevada’s Indian Country. (2025). Visit USA Parks. https://visitusaparks.com/wild-spaces-and-indigenous-culture-in-nevada/
[13] Tribal Resources – Glen Canyon Dam AMP. (2025). Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. http://gcdamp.com/index.php/Tribal_Resources
