Warner Hot Spring
Warner Hot Spring sits in San Diego County, roughly fifteen miles from Julian. The water is hot, close to the point where a soak starts to hurt, and too hot to lower yourself into at the source. The file has no entry for public access and none for land ownership. OpenStreetMap knows it by the same name, and there is a USGS site number attached.
The spring is nearly on the pavement, eleven feet from the road by the record, though which road is not named in the file. Elevation runs a little over three thousand feet, so this is foothill country with real winters by Southern California standards: a few inches of snow in a typical year and a modest rain total. No land owner or unit is recorded, so you cannot assume it is public ground.
Best months per the record: December through February. Roadside, no walk. Indian Flats Campground, around five miles off, is the closest camping listed. The temperature is high enough that you should test the water before a hand goes in, and do not expect to sit in it where it surfaces. The water figures on the page go back to a December 1964 sample, so treat them as historical. Confirm ownership and access before you go.
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 Warner Hot 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
- 90 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 35% 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.
The water at Warner Hot Spring is slightly acidic (pH 6.6) with 355 mg/L total dissolved solids.
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17 sites. Pacific Crest Trail Access. No Water. The nearest water can be found at the Warner Springs Gas Station. Indian Flats will be temporarily closed for Arroyo Toad protection during breeding season beginning April 1st through at least May 31st.
Warner Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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