Browns Grotto 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.
Browns Grotto Warm Spring, eight miles or so from Salida in Chaffee County, Colorado, is tepid, room temperature at best, at roughly seventy-four hundred feet. Access and ownership are absent from the file, so who controls it is the open question. A 1976 USGS sample gives alkaline water with iron and sodium in it.
Something under two hundred yards separates it from the closest road, which the record does not name, so finish on foot. High country; winters drop a good deal of snow and the yearly average sits in the low forties. Rain is modest. Land unit and designation: nothing given, so public status is unverified here.
Midwinter is what the record lists as the season, though for water this cool the season is more about getting there than the soak. Short walk. Angel of Shavano Group campground, a little under nine miles away, is the one listed, and the name suggests group sites. Fees: nothing recorded. The chemistry is old, 1976. Access is not on file; confirm 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 Browns Grotto Warm Spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the northeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 344 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 2½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 97% 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 Browns Grotto Warm Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 8.0).
Overview Angel of Shavano Group Campground is considered one of the area's best kept camping secrets. It is situated next to the North Fork South Arkansas River and offers a variety of recreational activities, including hiking, biking, and fishing. Reservations are REQUIRED at this facility. Reservations can be made up to 1 year in advance. Recreation The Colorado Trail begins within the campground and provides excellent hiking, horseback riding and biking opportunities. The trail stretches 4...
Browns Grotto Warm Spring sits at 7,452 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 30% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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