Mono Basin Warm Springs
State land holds Mono Basin Warm Springs, in Mono County about 28 miles from Mammoth Lakes, off East Shore Road. The California State Lands Commission is the listed owner and the public-access entry says open. Water temperature is a little under body heat. The page has a photo, and a USGS site number is attached.
East Shore Road runs under five hundred feet away. Elevation is around 6,400 feet, in dry country with a moderately snowy winter and little rain. The land carries an SRMA designation under the State Lands Commission. Lower Virginia Creek Primitive Campground is the camping listed, nearly eighteen miles off by the record.
Winter comes out ahead in the best-months data; snow here is moderate so that may hold. The water is safe to sit in as far as temperature goes and will not feel hot. No fee on record. Camping is a long way off, at Lower Virginia Creek. No chemistry has been recorded despite the USGS site number.
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 Mono Basin Warm 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
- 41 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 89% 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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Rustic campsites with fire rings in Jeffrey Pine Forest. There is no trash service please pack out your trash.
Mono Basin Warm Springs sits at 6,434 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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Mono Basin Warm Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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