Matilija 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.
A second Matilija Hot Springs record, this one a little farther from Meiners Oaks in Ventura County. Wikipedia describes the whole system as 22 hot and cold springs around a former resort northwest of Ojai. No temperature has been logged for this particular point, so do not assume it is soakable. Ownership and entry rules are blank as well.
North Fork Springs Road runs within a few dozen yards of the spring, which makes this a roadside stop on paper. The ground is low foothill, around twelve hundred feet up. Snow is a rarity. Rain comes in modest amounts and mainly in winter. No agency or land unit is listed.
There are no best months on file for this one and no temperature, so the usual advice about timing a soak does not apply. Wheeler Gorge campground is about two miles away if you are camping in the area. Before visiting, find out who holds the land. A county landmark on former resort property can still be closed to walk-ins.
Matilija Hot Springs was once a resort, with 22 hot and cold springs scattered across the site northwest of Ojai. Ventura County named it a County Historical Landmark, number 25, in 1972.
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 Matilija Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 798 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, 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 7% 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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Overview Wheeler Gorge Campground is a great place for families to explore the Los Padres National Forest all year long. Informative tours of the area are led by forest rangers at the nearby visitor center. The campground provides scenic views of a nearby stream, as well as vast mountain vistas.Recreation The Wheeler Gorge Nature Trail begins at the upper end of the campground. It is a relatively short loop that leads through thick vegetation along the creek banks and to a hillside view of th...
Matilija Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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