Rogers Spring

Rogers Spring is a warm spring and picnic stop in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, tucked at the foot of the Muddy Mountains. It feeds a shallow pool about 80 feet across, edged by reeds and fan palms before its water runs into Rogers Wash. Visitors like the sudden pocket of green against the rocky desert, but this is a small oasis, not a large swimming hole.

A short side road off Northshore Road leads to parking beside the spring. The picnic area has four tables, four grills and restrooms, but no drinking water; bring your own. It's listed as a year-round stop. Pets are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet.

The pool is shallow, and some visitors find it muddy, so don't expect a big, clear soaking pool. Lake Mead warns of a rare amoeba risk in its springs. If you go in, keep your head above water or plug your nose before submerging.

Rogers is one of the park's high-priority springs for monitoring because of its size and concentration of rare aquatic species. The pool and its outflow are habitat as well as a picnic backdrop, and springs across the park have been affected by human activity and invasive species.

Some of the oasis look is human-made: a low earthen dam holds the water in a pool, and the California fan palms are non-native. An irrigation project once linked Rogers Spring with nearby Blue Point Spring, another spring on the same fault.

Groundwater travels beneath the Muddy Mountains until it reaches the Rogers Spring Fault. Muddy basin-fill sediments on the other side block its underground path and push it back to the surface. That's why a small spring-fed pool appears here in such dry country.

For a photo, include the palms and water in front of the bare Muddy Mountains. That contrast is what makes the spring look like an oasis.