Warm Spring
Warm Spring, the first of two under that name in Modoc County, sits about 24 miles from Alturas in the high, cold northeast corner of the state. The water measures 70 degrees, which is warm only against the air up here. A photo is on file. The record is blank on owner and on access.
A few hundred feet of walking from an unnamed road, and you are at the spring, a little over five thousand feet up. Winters are serious: more than five feet of snow on average and an annual mean temperature in the forties. Rain and snowmelt together come to about twenty inches. Patterson Guard Station is the closest campground listed, eleven miles or so away.
The record points to winter, December through February, which is also when the road may be under snow, so treat those months as a cold-weather visit for people with the right vehicle. Nothing on file mentions a fee. Access is unrecorded. The water is cool enough that it will not warm you up on a frosty day.
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 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
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 87 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 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 22% 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 *Altitude is 7,080 feet above sea level* Set on the edge of a meadow surrounded by Aspen, Fir and Pine trees, Patterson Guard Station has stood since 1921. It served the Modoc National Forest as a fully staffed fire office and guard station until 1981. Just a few footsteps from the Summit Trail and one-quarter mile from the wilderness boundary, Patterson Guard Station can be your basecamp for trips into the South Warner Wilderness or the perfect place to disconnect and relax. The...
Warm Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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