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.
Roadside and scalding. This unnamed Hot Spring in the Inyo National Forest lies about sixteen miles from Bridgeport in northern Mono County, and the water would cause serious burns. Forest Service land, and access is listed as open. It appears on the USGS thermal site list. Anyone hoping for a soak should read the temperature and move on.
The nearest road is a hundred and thirty-odd feet away, though the road has no name on file. Elevation is in the mid six thousands. Five feet of snow is a normal winter, and the year is dry. For camping the record gives Lower Virginia Creek Primitive Campground, eight miles distant.
The best-rated months are the cold ones, December to February. Keep hands and feet out of the water; it is well past scalding. Nothing on fee or chemistry. No photo either. The Forest Service owns it, so private land is no concern. The record says nothing about signage or barriers, so approach with care.
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
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 7 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
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 2½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 92% 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.
Rustic campsites with fire rings in Jeffrey Pine Forest. There is no trash service please pack out your trash.
Hot Spring sits at 6,452 feet above sea level, way above the mile-high mark. You may not feel the altitude strongly, but hot water still dehydrates you faster at elevation. UV is about 26% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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