Coso Hot Springs

Coso Hot Springs is a remarkable natural geothermal area on the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert of California, where extensive fumaroles, mud pots, and thermal springs mark a major volcanic field associated with the Walker Lane seismic zone. The springs, located within a restricted military area, have been used by Native American peoples including the Paiute-Shoshone for thousands of years and are associated with one of the largest collections of ancient petroglyphs in North America — the Coso Petroglyph Site. The combination of active geothermal phenomena and extraordinary prehistoric indigenous art gives Coso one of the richest cultural and geological characters of any thermal site in the American West.