Hot Spring
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
A spring the record calls only Hot Spring, four miles or so outside Clifton in Greenlee County. It is hot, high 130s, too hot to sit in without cooling. What stands out is the chemistry: a 1978 sample found an exceptionally heavy mineral load, with iron among the minerals. Neither owner nor access is recorded. A USGS site number is attached.
Roughly five hundred feet of ground lies between the spring and an unnamed road, so count on a short walk. Moderate elevation, a dry climate, a foot or so of rain, occasional snow. Mid sixties, averaged over the year. Nobody is named as landowner. Eight miles or so away is Owl Creek Campground.
The listed season is winter, December through February. Walking in is short. The camp to use is Owl Creek. Ownership and access are unrecorded, so ask around Clifton before going. The water is hot enough to burn; keep clear of the source itself and test any pool first. The chemistry dates to 1978.
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 Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 415 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from west to east, 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 43% 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 Hot Spring contains 13900 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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...
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