Shoshone Spring

The Shoshone Spring is a made up of a quarter-mile trail that circles the warm spring. Aside from having a couple benches and lush shade at this oasis in the arid eastern California landscape, the spring is most significant for being the exclusive habitat for the Shoshone pupfish, a small fish that was believed for years to have been extinct.

Believed to be extinct in the 1960s, a small population of pupfish were found in an outflow pool of the Shoshone Spring in 1986. Since that time, there has been a significant effort made to rehabilitate and improve the health of the spring area and pupfish populations at the spring.

Visitors are able to walk a short path with a couple interpretive signs before coming to a couple small ponds where the pupfish are easily visible. Several benches along the path make for relaxing areas to sit, and Shoshone's relative isolation ensure that few visitors make it to this trail.

Shoshone Spring is warm, however, it is not suitable for wading in. For more about the rediscovery of the pupfish, refer to KCET.org. All amenities are available in the nearby town of Shoshone. A visit to the spring can also be incorporated into the Shoshone Historic Trail.