Nicole Brydson
A Fair Soak at What Cost? Inside the Flippin-Hamrick Proposal for Tecopa Hot Springs
When the Inyo County Board of Supervisors meets in Tecopa on November 4, one agenda item will rise above the rest: how much locals and visitors will soon pay to soak in the County’s own hot springs. While residents have been fretting over the newly released rate schedule, Inyo County has also made public the full proposal submitted by…
Riparian Forests Along the Amargosa River Show Signs of Climate-Driven Collapse, UNLV Study Finds
A doctoral dissertation out of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas reports clear evidence that the riparian woodlands along the Amargosa River—spanning Ash Meadows, Shoshone, and Tecopa—are undergoing significant climate-driven decline. In her 2024 Ph.D. dissertation “Effects of Climate Change on (Semi)-Arid Ecosystems in the Southwestern United States,” researcher Charlotte van der Nagel analyzed three decades of vegetation and…
Tecopa Hot Springs Rates Still Under Negotiation Ahead of Nov. 4 County Meeting
When the Inyo County Board of Supervisors rolls into Tecopa next week, they can expect a full house — and perhaps a few raised voices — as locals prepare to weigh in on newly proposed rates for the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools. With pricing still under negotiation, questions about affordability, fairness, and the definition of “local”…
Paper Trails: The Bureaucratic Glow-Up of Tecopa’s Community Center
“It gets very dark here in the winter,” wrote Aaron Holmberg, Inyo County’s Assistant Director of Risk Management, in his 2024 safety report on the Tecopa Community Center. “The exit signs are needed, especially if the power goes out earlier or later in the day for staff.” If you’ve ever wondered how slow progress looks…
How the Desert Was Fed: Tecopa’s Farming Roots in the Mining Frontier
In the late 19th century, when settlers first began to cultivate the Amargosa Basin and the valleys surrounding Tecopa, they were not starting from scratch. The land had already been studied, shaped, and survived by the Southern Paiute and Mojave peoples for centuries. As historian Sherryl Lynn Weber documented in her 1995 University of Nevada, Las Vegas…
Tecopa Town Hall Unites Residents to Tackle Food Insecurity After Federal Cuts
“You guys are tough people out there,” said Jessica from the Inyo-Mono Advocates for Community Action (IMACA), nodding from her Zoom screen toward the handful of desert residents gathered inside the Tecopa Community Center on a cool October evening. “And we’re hungry,” a local resident replied. The exchange captured the tone of a town hall…
Flippin-Hamrick Crew Officially Takes Keys to Tecopa Hot Springs & Campground
A new era has officially begun at the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground. On Wednesday, the Flippin-Hamrick crew announced they have “received the keys” to the county-owned facility, marking the formal start of their tenure as concessionaire under a new ten-year agreement with Inyo County. The announcement was shared with the community through a public statement…
Heard Around Town: Desert Mornings and Mountain Snow
Autumn has arrived in the Amargosa Basin, bringing crisp mornings, clear skies, and — for the first time this season — snow on Telescope Peak. On October 14, residents spotted a fresh white cap dusting the summit of the Panamint Range, a sure sign that winter is edging closer to Death Valley. Down in Tecopa,…
County Orders Airbnb Operator to Cease Unpermitted Rentals at Lake Tecopa
The Inyo County Planning Department has issued a formal notice ordering the operator of the Lake Tecopa Airbnb to stop all short-term rental activity, citing violations of county code that prohibit unpermitted vacation rentals in unincorporated communities such as Tecopa. In a letter dated June 23, 2025, Planning Director Cathreen Richards informed Adrian Wilton, owner…
Inyo County Rewrites the Rules at Tecopa Hot Springs
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors is set to approve a new ten-year agreement at their October 21 meeting, granting Flippin Happy Campers & Lance Hamrick LLC the right to operate and maintain the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools, one of the Amargosa Basin’s most enduring public amenities. The contract marks the third public–private…
House Mice Bring Hidden Parasite Threat to Endangered Amargosa Voles in Tecopa
Welcome to our new science section — a weekly dive into the research shaping our understanding of the Amargosa Basin and the desert communities that call it home. Every Friday we will post a relevant article distilling peer-reviewed studies, field reports, and academic findings into clear, locally relevant stories about Tecopa’s ecology, geology, climate, and history. From…
Optimism Grows as Tecopa Hot Springs Concession Contract Nears Finalization
After months of uncertainty, momentum is building toward a finalized agreement for the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground & Pools concession. Both county officials and the incoming operators say they’re close to sealing the deal, with hopes of reopening by early November. At the September 23 Inyo County Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Will Wadelton noted…
Rep. Kevin Kiley Urges House to Return to Session, Breaks with Speaker Over Shutdown Strategy
As the federal government shutdown entered its twelfth day, Tecopa’s elected congressman, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R), said Sunday on CNN that the House should return to work instead of remaining closed under Speaker Mike Johnson’s direction. “There are a lot of reasons for the House to be in session,” Kiley said. “We were supposed to be in session the…
Heard Around Town: Rain, Renewal, and Resilience
It’s been a dramatic start to October in Tecopa, where the desert sky has delivered both a rare soaking and an early taste of winter. On October 9, residents watched dark clouds gather over the Amargosa Basin, bringing a flash flood warning and more than half an inch of rain — the third-largest rainfall in…
Heard Around Town: Desert Winds and Civic Sparks
Autumn is settling into the desert, and with it comes a sense of motion — the wind picking up, the air sharpening, and the land itself waking after months of heat and stillness. Across Inyo County, that shift is visible everywhere: in the renewed rhythm of community meetings, conservation projects, and events, and in the…
Dumont Dunes Ramps Up for the 2025 OHV Season
As the summer heat fades and the desert winds begin to cool, the familiar sound of engines returns to Dumont Dunes. Riders from across the Southwest are tuning up for another off-highway vehicle (OHV) season at this vast 7,620-acre sand dune system, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Located about 40 miles north of Baker…
Heard Around Town: Waiting on the Record
Inyo County has confirmed that it is still in the process of negotiating the concessionaire contract with the selected respondent for the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools. As a result, officials say, TecopaCabana’s public records request related to the submitted applications remains on hold. “This PRA will be resumed once negotiations are complete,” the…
Heard Around Town: Season 11 Takes Shape
Desert Festival ‘Tecopa Takeover’ Shifts to November 7–9, Confirms Lineup The desert’s most colorful fall tradition is officially back. Organizers have confirmed that Tecopa Takeover 11 will be held November 7–9, 2025 at the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort, just 90 minutes from Las Vegas. “Yes! Of course it is happening!!! We can’t help ourselves…” organizers wrote in their announcement.…
New Concessionaire Recommended for Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools
Inyo County has recommended awarding the concession agreement for the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools to Flippin Happy Campers & Lance Hamrick LLC, opening the door to the next chapter in the stewardship of one of the Mojave Desert’s crown jewels. The County, which issued a request for proposals earlier this year following the…
Tecopa’s Community Plan Explained
The unincorporated community of Tecopa, in collaboration with Inyo County, laid out its vision for the future after a series of public meetings starting in 2015, preparing a draft document called the Tecopa Community Plan and releasing it in 2018. We thought it might be helpful to refresh our collective memory of what is even…
Grimshaw Lake: A Desert Landmark Rooted in Local History
At the edge of the Amargosa Basin, where the Mojave Desert blurs into Death Valley’s outer reaches, a small, spring-fed wetland carries the name of one of Tecopa’s mid-20th century settlers. Grimshaw Lake, barely still there, represents the way individuals leave their mark on a place — sometimes through enterprise, sometimes through accident, and often…
Heard Around Town: Quiet Work
Property tax assessments for Inyo County landed in Tecopa mailboxes this month, and many residents are facing valuations that have climbed as much as 20 percent over last year. The increases have sparked unease in this small desert community, where modest incomes and fixed pensions are common, and where institutional support is limited. The higher…
SIFPD Names New Volunteer EMT Trainee, Faces Questions Over Recruitment Practices
The Southern Inyo Fire Protection District (SIFPD) has confirmed that Daniel Leseberg has been hired as a volunteer firefighter/EMT and will attend Unitek’s “boot camp” EMT training in Arizona this September, a program funded by district resources at a cost of approximately $8,500 per student. The decision, confirmed in correspondence from Chief Bill Lutze, follows…
SIFPD Fire Station Plans Spark Progress — and Debate — as County Awaits Key Details
The Southern Inyo Fire Protection District (SIFPD) has taken a significant step toward building long-awaited fire stations in Tecopa and Charleston View, but key details remain unfinished before the project can move from concept to construction bids — and the process of finalizing them has been anything but straightforward. A draft document prepared by local…
Three Decades Later, Unofficial Water Test Used in Official County Process
A water quality report from 1995 is being used by Inyo County officials in 2025 as supporting documentation in their search for a new operator for Tecopa Hot Springs County Park — even though the report was never commissioned by the county. The decades-old analysis was conducted by J. Edward Guilmette, an environmental consultant who…