Pioneer 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.
About a dozen miles outside Kearny in Pinal County, Pioneer Spring comes up at soaking temperature on BLM land managed out of Tucson. It is open to the public. The water is the kind of warm you can sit in for a long while without getting cold or cooked.
Getting there costs you a half mile on foot from a nameless road, or at least the record never gives it one. Close to four thousand feet up. Snow shows each winter without usually closing anything off. Fifteen inches of rain in a year. It is public land, with nothing attached to it beyond the BLM Field Office, and no fee recorded.
The best months listed run December through February. Plan on a half-mile walk each way. Kellner Group Campground is the nearest camping listed, roughly nine miles off. No water chemistry has been sampled here that the record shows, and the temperature is the single measurement given, so treat the soaking conditions as unverified until you see them.
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 Pioneer Spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the north.
- Highest ground nearby
- 292 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 16% 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.
Overview Kellner Group Site is nestled at the base of the beautiful Pinal Mountains south of Globe, Arizona. Several picnic areas are separeted from the larger group area creating a semi-secluded setting. This site's interesting rock walls and steps were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It sits in the riparian area of Kellner Canyon, which frequently has a small stream running through it following winter runoff.Recreation Kellner Group Site recreation opportunities include hiking,...
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