Kingman-Mojave County has several areas that have been centers of volcanic activity in the geological past. The best known is the volcanic heart of the Black Mountains, site of the Silver Creek caldera.
The Oatman region, part of this caldera, produced the most gold in Arizona. There are other volcanic centers that are lesser known because they didn’t produce much gold. One of these is the Kaiser Spring Volcanic Area south of Wikieup.
Driving from Kingman on Highway 93 to Wickenburg passes through the southern part of this volcanic region. After crossing the Big Sandy River, it begins as you approach the Kaiser Spring Bridge and continues after crossing the Barrow Creek Bridge until you reach Milepost 146 on flats.
Volcanic fields are smaller than other fields, but they have unique features. At the confluence of the Kaiser Spring Wash and Barrow Creek, he has one Barrow Creek Mine that has produced gold and silver in the past. The mine is developed in a volcano-hosted, low sulfide (low pyrite content), exohydrothermal (formed from cold water), gold-silver vein. Near the mine ruins is the Kaiser Hot Springs, where water oozes from an old drill hole (something is still being cooked there). People have created kiddie pools out of sandbags so that visitors can sit and enjoy the hot water. If you want to hike to the hot springs, park under the Kaiser Spring Bridge and follow the washdown to the hot springs. However, do this only in winter. The summer was incredibly hot, and heat-stricken people were rescued. Also, why would you want to go to a hot spring when the air temperature is almost the same as the water temperature?
The volcanic core has other interesting features such as ancient silica terraces, hot spring craters, and hydrothermally altered rocks. Follow the Burro Creek Crossing Road to Burro Creek, passing several holes dug in altered rock and sediment just before reaching the creek. A company called Arizona Lithium has been investigating the altered sediments and has discovered deposits of lithium that it plans to mine.
The volcano’s center has several craters from which lava erupted. These centers are difficult to find because the magma was viscous and did not flow easily, moving like thick blobs of toothpaste. Stream banding is easily visible in the wash where the rocks are most exposed. There is his 4 wheel drive road (BLM#7519) heading south just before reaching the Kaiser Springs Bridge (on the right) which will take you to the hot springs. Follow this road to the ridgeline and turn on BLM #7520. Route 7520 enters the Kaiser Wash and heads downstream to the hot springs. The last time we were there, we got within a few hundred feet of the spring and had to walk the rest of the way.
It’s interesting why the Kaiser Spring Center erupted at this particular location. If you look in Google Earth, you can spot linear features along the Bright Angel Fault in the Grand Canyon. Apparently, the Bright Angel Fault extends from the Grand Canyon and intersects features that have created weak spots where magma in the Earth’s interior can reach the surface. All three of her other volcanic centers, lined up along this straight line, are of the same age, from Miocene to Pliocene.
The volcanic core of Kaiser Springs includes some very rugged terrain, such as Hell’s Half Acre, named for its steep cliffs and narrow canyons. Four-wheelers have roads that traverse Hell’s Half acre and are fun to drive for the adventurous. Numerous volcanic features such as spherulites and perlite rhyolites can be seen (see Kaiser Spring Volcanic Field Spherulites and Perlite Rhyolites | AZGS (arizona.edu)). In warm months, the cooling dips at the lower falls of Barrow Creek are wonderful. The falls are situated on a bed of resistant silicified sediments that cross the creek upstream from Six Mile Crossing. Above the waterfall is a tub-like recessed flat surface where you can sit and enjoy the cool water swirling around you.
Another great place to see volcanic features is Burro Creek Campground. Park at the campsite and hike upstream to the highway bridge. There, thick basalt streams are found above the sediments of the basin. The wash contains numerous siliceous sinter cobblestones, indicating siliceous terraces somewhere upstream, similar to those found in the volcanic region of Yellowstone.
I hiked from the campground to the pool under the Burro Creek bridge on Route 93 to the rescue, but no more. I’m going further upstream trying to find a silicified terrace to see if there is any gold associated with silicification. I don’t understand why they weren’t as excited as I was. Give up! People don’t understand why geologists get excited when they see rocks.
