Gillard Hot Springs
Gillard Hot Springs comes out of the ground at 180 degrees, hot enough to scald skin on contact and close to a simmer. It is on BLM land under the Safford Field Office, about five miles from Clifton in Greenlee County, with access listed as open. Someone has photographed it. Nobody should think of this as a soaking spring at the source; the water has to cool a long way first.
The closest road is unnamed on file and passes about five hundred feet away, so the walk is short. Public land, Bureau of Land Management. The elevation is moderate, and the climate dry, with roughly a foot of rain a year and snow as a light dusting most years. Owl Creek Campground is close by this record's standards, about two and a half miles away.
Winter is on file as the season, December through February. The approach is a short walk. Owl Creek Campground is near enough to camp and walk over. The water is scalding. At 180 degrees it will burn instantly, so stay out of the source and any channel close to it, and test anything downstream before touching. Fees: nothing listed. Access is open.
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 Gillard 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.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the southwest.
- Highest ground nearby
- 191 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 42% 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.
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Located in the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona, Owl Creek Campground has seven campsites, picnic tables, grills, ramadas, trash receptacles, and restroom facilities available to make your stay more enjoyable. There is no potable water available at the campground. Three of the campsites are pull-through sites, and four are pull-in sites, making the campground suitable for trailers and RVS. The campground is a stop on the Black Hills Back Country Byway, and it is also j...
Gillard Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully. Bring sun protection for exposed soaking.
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