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.
The second Modoc County record called Warm Spring lies closer to Alturas, around 16 miles out, and a bit lower down. At 75 degrees it is tepid, the kind of water you notice is warm when the morning is cold and forget about by noon. Nothing about the owner or access is written down, and no fee either. County Road 151 is the nearest named road.
County Road 151 comes within half a mile, leaving a short walk at the end. The spring sits at roughly 4,400 feet, in country that takes a good 56 inches of snow through a normal winter and stays cool the rest of the time. Rain is modest. Patterson Guard Station is the nearest camping anyone has recorded, and it is nearly eighteen miles away.
Best months on record are the winter three, but those are also the snow months, and County Road 151 may not be plowed where you need it. There is no campground close. No fee on file. Since ownership is blank, assume the land could be private until a sign or a local tells you otherwise.
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.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 13 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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 16% 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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