Whitmore Hot Springs
Whitmore Hot Springs, ten miles out of Mammoth Lakes in Mono County, is on land owned by the City of Los Angeles through its Department of Water and Power, and the record marks it open. On file the water reads 95 degrees, a gentle soaking warmth. The USGS has a site here and sampled the water in 1997.
Reaching it means a short walk, roughly a quarter mile, from a road the record never names, at nearly seven thousand feet. Winters are snowbound, seven feet of snow being normal, and mean temperatures stay in the forties. McGee Creek campground is under five miles away. The 1997 sample came up alkaline with chloride noted.
The best-months note says winter, and with this much snow that means snow travel or a plowed road, and the record is silent on plowing. Camp at McGee Creek. No fee is noted. Access is open. Mammoth Lakes has services ten miles off, and the chemistry has not been re-checked since the nineties as far as the record shows.
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 Whitmore Hot 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
- 19 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the west
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 twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 90% 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 Whitmore Hot Springs is alkaline (pH 8.7). It is notably rich in chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Overview McGee Campground provides a pleasant, sunny location for family camping between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. The campground's proximity to U.S. Highway 395 and the adjacent John Muir Wilderness make it a hot spot for hiking, rock climbing, fishing, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, hunting, photography and geology study.Recreation Majestic scenery and challenging trails draw in hikers, mountain bikers and equestrian enthusiasts. The McGee Creek...
Whitmore Hot Springs sits at 6,970 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 28% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Whitmore Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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