Battle Creek 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.
Battle Creek Hot Springs is a big, scalding flow outside Preston in Franklin County, Idaho, a few miles from town. The water comes up well above the danger line and carries a very heavy mineral load. A short walk in from the road. No owner or access record. The USGS keeps a site record for it.
Around forty-five hundred feet, in country with something under five feet of snow each year and around twenty inches of precipitation. The road is a few hundred feet off and the record gives it no name. Third Creek Group Site is the closest camping listed, ten or eleven miles away. The USGS measured discharge at three cubic feet per second, a real stream of hot water.
Stay out of the source. At this temperature skin burns in seconds, and the record shows no pool where it cools. The listed best months run December through February. Public access is not recorded and there is no named landowner, so ask locally in Preston. The chemistry is from a 1972 sample.
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 Battle Creek Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 127 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 2½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 93% 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 Battle Creek Hot Springs is neutral (pH 7.0) with 9180 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
Overview Third Creek Group Campground is located just 12 miles northeast of Malad, Idaho, on the Weston Highway near Deep Creek Reservoir. Visitors enjoy exploring the local trail system and fishing at Deep Creek.Recreation Third Creek Trailhead is adjacent to the campground, complete with hitching racks for horses. It accesses the Oxford Peak Trail System and is open to hikers, bikers, motorcyclists and off-road vehicle users as well. Deep Creek Reservoir offers good trout, as well as boati...