Paradise Spring
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Ten miles or so out of Fort Irwin, Paradise Spring comes up at soaking temperature in the desert of San Bernardino County. A fifth of a mile separates it from the road. Who owns the land is missing from the record, and so is any note on public access, which is the main thing to know before you drive out there.
Mid-elevation Mojave desert, dry almost all year, with no snow to speak of. The walk in is short and the road it leaves from is unnamed. Lacking any recorded land unit or owner, you cannot tell from here if this is public ground or private property. Three inches of rain in a year is about what falls here.
Winter is the season. December through February are on record as best, and with practically no rain the rest of the year it is mostly about avoiding heat. Rainbow Basin/Owl Canyon is the campground on record, around sixteen miles distant. Confirm access before you go, since nothing on record says the spring is open.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Paradise Spring.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the northwest.
- Highest ground nearby
- 139 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
A slice through the ground from west to east, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 47% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
Overview Rainbow Basin Natural Area is an Area of Critical Environmental Concern with outstanding views and geological and paleontological features.. Many visitors come to see exciting multi-colored rock formations and walk the scenic canyons. A variety of desert adapted wildlife are found here, including the desert tortoise. Owl Canyon Campground is a first-come first-served campground with 22 campsites (no hookups). Campsites include a picnic table and a fire ring. Fee is $6.00 per nig...