Castle Hot Springs
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Castle Hot Springs is a historic resort in the Hieroglyphic Mountains of Yavapai County, about fifteen miles from Black Canyon City, and it is hot in earnest, right around 115 degrees at the source by the record. Wikipedia notes the resort has recently been restored and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The access line is blank, and so is the landowner. A 1979 chemistry sits in the USGS record.
Castle Hot Springs Road runs within a couple hundred yards of the spring, so reaching it takes a short walk at most. Low desert, around two thousand feet, with mild winters and almost no snow. Across a year the thermometer averages close to seventy. Horsethief Cabin, a dozen or so miles away, is as close as camping gets in the record. The 1979 water sample shows a slightly alkaline pH.
Go in winter if you can, December through February per the record. The water is above 110, so test before stepping in and assume the source is hotter than any pool. The spring sits on a resort, so treat access as the resort's call and check ahead. For camping the record gives Horsethief Cabin, a drive away. No fee information is listed.
Wikipedia describes Castle Hot Springs as a recently restored historic resort listed on the National Register of Historic Places, set within the Hieroglyphic Mountains. The USGS sampled the water in June 1979.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Castle Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 254 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 4% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
The water at Castle Hot Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.7). It is notably rich in sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation) and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Overview Horsethief Cabin is situated in a clearing of Ponderosa pines at an elevation of over 6,000 feet in the Bradshaw Mountains of the Prescott National Forest. The original cabin was built in 1939 as quarters and a staging area for Forest Service crews charged with protecting the southern end of the Bradshaw Mountains against wildfires. The cabin was remodeled and modernized over the years, but eventually fell into disuse by the 1980s. The historic structure now enjoys a second life as a...
Castle Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key. Bring sun protection for exposed soaking.
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