Routt Hot Springs
Routt Hot Springs comes out scalding, hot enough to burn on contact, a few miles from Steamboat Springs in Routt County. That temperature is the headline. Nobody is named as landowner and access is not on record, so check before you go hunting for it.
Roadside, with maybe three hundred feet between the spring and a road nobody named on the record. Elevation runs near 7,500 feet, so winter holds on a long time. Snow piles well past nine feet. Rain and melt over the year come out middling. Dry Lake Campground is listed four miles off.
Midwinter, December through February, is listed as best. Roadside access. The source is far too hot to touch, let alone sit in, so keep clear of the outlet and any channel near it. Chemistry on file dates from a 1975 sample. Confirm landowner and access before visiting. No fee appears on record and OpenStreetMap has no entry name for it.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the south.
- Highest ground nearby
- 307 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
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 twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 65% 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 Routt Hot Springs is neutral (pH 7.1). It is notably rich in chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Overview Dry Lake Trailhead is located off County Road 60 (Buffalo Pass Road) and is near the Dry Lake Campground. This trailhead provides access to both non-motorized and motorized trails. Access for dirt bikes and other recreational vehicles on Buffalo Pass Road. This is a very high-use year-round trailhead and a gateway to exploring the aspens, sub-alpine firs, and wildflowers of the mountains of the Park Range. A vault toilet is provided at the Trailhead. Dry Lake Trailhead is managed by...
Routt Hot Springs sits at 7,499 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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Routt Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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