Hot Springs (Surprise Valley)
In Surprise Valley, Modoc County, this is one of the hottest sources on record, near boiling. Alturas is twenty-five miles off. It sits a few dozen feet from a road. The record lists no landowner and gives no access status. Treat it as a thing to see from a distance, and as a place where you need to know whose ground you are standing on before you step off the road.
Roadside, eighty-some feet from the pavement or gravel, the record does not specify. You are in the mid four thousands for elevation, in the northeast corner of the state. Four feet of snow, give or take, falls each winter; the rest of the year stays dry. Pepperdine Equestrian Campground, about ten miles off, is the closest listed.
December through February rate highest. Do not go near the water's edge. This water scalds instantly, and a slip would be a medical emergency. With no owner listed, assume private land until you learn otherwise. One photo is on file. Chemistry, fee, USGS site and flow are all blank.
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 Springs (Surprise Valley).
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
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 5 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
A slice through the ground from south to north, 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 32% 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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The campsites are mostly shaded and enjoy serene surroundings and are equiped with 12' X 12' metal corrals. A short trail runs over to the start of the Summit Trail where it heads south into the South Warner Wilderness. No wilderness permits are required however, if you plan to use a camp or backpack stove or charcoal barbeque or have a campfire outside the developed campground, you will need a current California Campfire Permit.
Hot Springs (Surprise Valley) is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully.
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