Lake City 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.
Lake City Hot Springs in Modoc County comes out of the ground a few degrees shy of boiling. Alturas is the nearest city, about 22 miles away, and County Road 13 is the nearest road. Nobody has recorded an owner or an access status. It is a source to look at from a distance and nothing to bathe in as it emerges.
About a third of a mile separates County Road 13 from the spring. The elevation is around 4,500 feet, open country, dry through the year, with middling snow in winter. Lassen Creek Campground is nearly twelve miles off. Land unit is unrecorded, and nothing says who holds title, so the county road is the only thing you can count on being public.
Winter leads the month ranking here. The water will scald on contact at the source. Lassen Creek Campground is where the record puts camping. With no owner on file, check for signs or fences before leaving the county road, and give the source a wide berth.
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 Lake City Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 17 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 48% 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.
Lassen is a lovely little campground near the obsidian mines. It is currently under discussion for decommissioning.This is open area camping as there are no designated camp-sites. FRock fire rings are located throughout the area.
Springs Near Lake City Hot Springs
More Springs Around 207°F
Hike 2 waterfalls near Lake City Hot Springs
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Lake City Hot Springs, California.