Leonards Hot Springs
Leonards Hot Springs, in Modoc County about twenty-five miles from Alturas, comes out of the ground too hot to touch. County Road 18 gets you within a short walk of it. The owner is unrecorded, and so is the access status. There is a photo in the record. Neither a pool nor bathing activity is described on file.
About a tenth of a mile from County Road 18 on foot. The country is around forty-five hundred feet, dry, with winters that drop a little over four feet of snow. Sixteen inches of precipitation fall across the year. Thirteen miles separate it from Pepperdine Equestrian Campground.
Winter tops the record's list of months. Stay out of the water and away from its edge; contact means an instant scald. The land question is open, no owner on file, so be ready to turn around. Fee and chemistry are blank. The USGS has no site number here.
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 Leonards 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.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 33 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 34% 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.
Leonards Hot Springs 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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