McDonald Spring Road is a roughly 12-mile one-way dirt 4WD route in the Nevada Triangle portion of Death Valley National Park (and adjacent public lands), starting near the Bullfrog turnoff on Rhyolite Road between Nevada Highway 374 and the Rhyolite ghost town. It runs through the western Bullfrog Hills into a large wash, then branches; the north fork leads to McDonald Spring (about 11.9 miles), while a south branch continues toward the Hooligan Mine area and Cave Rock Spring (about 12 miles). Four-wheel-drive is recommended due to sand in the wash.
The road does not connect through to other major routes. Vegetation along the final stretch is relatively sparse and dominated by Great Basin sagebrush and rabbitbrush, with stands of golden cholla. The last ~0.3 mile up a small canyon to the spring itself is closed to vehicles. The spring sits at roughly 5,590 feet elevation (GPS approx. 36°54.272′N 117°01.060′W).
Today the spring is little more than a seep that maintains a couple of shallow pools, often fouled by feral burros. There are no trees. Clear evidence of greater past flow remains in the form of at least three wooden watering troughs and a large metal tank, partially overgrown by dense desert broom.
History of McDonald Spring and Its Connection to Rhyolite
McDonald Spring lies on the east slope of the Grapevine Mountains / Bullfrog Hills area, historically described (early 1900s USGS water-supply data) as having a small supply of water and located roughly 10 miles a little north of west of Bullfrog. Nearby Mexican Camp was a wood-cutting camp serving the mining district.
Rhyolite itself (founded 1904–1905 after Shorty Harris and E.L. Cross’s gold discovery that launched the Bullfrog Mining District) grew explosively into a short-lived boomtown of several thousand people by 1907–1908, complete with banks, a stock exchange, railroads, electricity, and piped water. Water was the critical limiting resource in this arid country. Early on it was hauled by wagon at high cost ($2–5 per barrel); later, multiple competing companies piped water from various local springs (including Indian Springs and others) into town and stored it in tanks.
McDonald Spring was not one of the primary long-distance piped sources that supplied the main Rhyolite townsite, but it formed part of the broader network of small springs and seeps that supported mining, wood camps, travel, and livestock across the Bullfrog Hills and Nevada Triangle during the rush. The surviving troughs and tank show it was developed for watering stock or supporting temporary camps. After the boom collapsed (Montgomery-Shoshone Mine closed 1911; power turned off by 1916; the town essentially abandoned by the early 1920s), such remote springs continued to see intermittent use and later became watering points for wild burros.
The surrounding area contains other minor historic mining sites (Hooligan/Happy Hooligan Mine, Patootse Mine, etc.) and wood-camp remnants tied to the same early-20th-century activity that briefly made Rhyolite one of the largest towns in the region.
Practical notes: This is remote high-desert backcountry. High-clearance 4WD is essential; check current road conditions and any seasonal closures with Death Valley National Park or the BLM. Carry ample water, as the spring itself is not a reliable potable source. Respect historic artifacts and leave them in place. The route offers solitude, views of the Bullfrog Hills and Grapevine Mountains, and a tangible link to the water-scarce realities of the Rhyolite-era mining camps.