Upper Warm Spring
Upper Warm Spring is a backcountry water source in Death Valley National Park, Inyo County, roughly 26 miles out from Lone Pine. Whatever is known about its temperature lives in the name. It is called warm, nothing more, no reading, so do not expect a soak. Public access is open and there is a photo on record. The nearest road is more than eight miles away.
Getting there is a walk of eight miles and change from the closest road, left unnamed in the record, inside a national park where the ground is managed by the Park Service. The elevation is modest, under two thousand feet, and the climate is desert: about six inches of rain in a year and the odd dusting of snow. Average temperatures run in the low seventies, which in this park means summer highs far beyond that. Nothing in the record describes the terrain or a trail.
Nothing is listed for best season or for camping, and no fee appears. The walk in is long and the water may be barely warm, so this is a destination for people who already know how to move through desert backcountry. Check with the park before setting out, since conditions change and the record here is thin. Temperature unknown, so do not bathe on the strength of the name.
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 Upper Warm Spring.
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
- 51 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 42% 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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Upper Warm Spring requires a hike to reach, so pack light but prepared. Bring sun protection for exposed soaking.
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