Wild Willy's Hot Springs

Wild Willy's Hot Springs (also known as Crowley Hot Springs) is made up of two hot spring pools surrounded by cows, wild flowers, and mountain ranges. This popular spot is located near Mammoth Lakes, CA. We ended up car camping for one night and it was perrrrfect.

My trip in a nutshell:

Travel Month: August, Saturday-Sunday

# of Nights: 1

Permit Required. No (woot woot)! Meaning it's free and you can go whenever. Just remember to pick up your trash and leave the site better than how you found it!

 

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Campsite Info:

Address: Click Here 

This is public land, meaning you can park and camp overnight in any pre existing site (i.e., a little carved out dirt spot). you are able to car camp in the main parking lot, but we camped further away in order to have more privacy. If you don't find parking in the same area as us (see pic below), look for available spots along the right and left hand side of the road. Overall, you shouldn't have a problem finding a camping spot.

FYI:

1. Shower. No

2. Toilets. Yes, one at the main parking lot. 

3. Dogs allowed. Yes! Super dog friendly.

4. Parking. There is a parking lot that has about 50 ish spots. Parking isn't an issue. 

5. The hot springs can get fairly crowded, aim to get there super early or later in the day. 

6. Pro Tip: go on a weekday, it will be way less crowded. 

7. Hot Springs. From the parking lot, the hot springs are super close, about a 7 minute walk. There are two hot springs, a larger one that is like a warm bath, and a smaller HEART SHAPED one that is more like a jacuzzi. I liked the heart shaped one better. PS. Some people will go nude, hence “Wild Willy’s”. 

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My Trip!

We arrived around 4:00pm and it was still fairly crowded, so we waited a bit (aka set up camp and made drinks) and by the time we came back a lot of people left.

Also, we got some amazing sunset photos and these pictures were from the bigger (warm bath) hot spring:

The next morning I was determined to wake up and go to the hot springs before the sunrise and/or anyone else was there! So I got up at 4:00am and waited until 5:00am to walk over. Even though I woke up early, there were still 5ish people already in the hot springs and just became more crowded every 10-15 minutes after 5:30am. 

Here's the heart-shaped hot spring at Wild Willy’s. There was no one in it, yay!

I almost forgot about the COWS! They are super cute, just make sure you don't step in the cow pies.

Overall, the campsite itself wasn’t the greatest. This was a camping trip solely to explore the beautiful hot springs and nearby Mammoth (see my Crowley Lake stone COlumns post). I would highly recommend camping out if you’re from the Bay Area or anywhere +3 hours of Wild Willy’s hot springs.

Hope you enjoy Wild willy’s hot spring! let me know if you have any questions in the comment section.