Sight · Lake Mead National Recreation Area
A planted palm oasis with a failed canal and hatchery past.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Lake Mead Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Lake Mead National Recreation Area. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Lake Mead audio tourRecorded for this place
Blue Point Spring: An Oasis with a Hatchery Past“You're nearing the roadside stop for Blue Point Spring, a green wash lined with palms against the bare desert. The spring head is about a quarter mile from the road, up a gradual incline.”
Plays as you drive up to Blue Point Spring in the Parkwolf Lake Mead Tour Guide.
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“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
Blue Point Spring is a small spring and wash along Northshore Road, around mile 41 and about a mile north of Rogers Spring. Its palms and dense green growth stand out against the open desert. It’s a worthwhile short stop if you’re curious about how water shapes this landscape. For a photo, keep the palm-lined wash in the foreground and some of the bare desert behind it so the contrast comes through.
The spring head is about a quarter mile from the road, so expect a short walk on a gradual incline rather than a spring you can see from the car. A picnic shelter and table sit near the roadside area. Rogers Spring, about a mile south, is the nearby stop with documented restrooms. Blue Point’s year-round flow isn’t established, so go for the oasis and its history rather than a guaranteed view of running water.
The fan palms aren’t native to Lake Mead. They were planted to create an oasis effect, and can compete with native plants and draw on spring water. The lush green patch is part of Blue Point’s human history, not a natural palm grove.
A 1903 proposal would have diverted water from Blue Point and Rogers springs to irrigate 500 acres near St. Thomas, but the canal project failed. A waterfowl refuge proposed in 1938–43 was never completed, and a tropical fish hatchery operated at Blue Point in the mid-1950s before it too failed.
Wildlife
525 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
116 sightingsBurroMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
18 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 4 PMSighting map
99 sightingsWhite PelicanMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
145 sightingsGreat Blue HeronMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
106 sightingsTurkey VultureMost seen around noonSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Lake Mead. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Parkwolf’s Lake Mead ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
