Bear Lake 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.
Ten miles out of Paris, in Bear Lake County, Idaho, Bear Lake Hot Springs surfaces hot and heavy with minerals a short way off Merkley Lake Road. Straight from the source the water sits above comfortable soaking heat, going by a reading taken decades back. Who owns it is unknown. So is public access. Nothing in the record describes what has been built at the site.
Roadside, a couple hundred feet from Merkley Lake Road, at a little under six thousand feet. The climate is cold and dry, about five feet of snow on eighteen inches of precipitation. Mean temperature is mid-forties. St. Charles Campground is the campground on record, nine miles and a bit. No land unit on file.
December through February appear as the best months. Getting to the roadside is the whole approach. The water is hot enough to need cooling before anyone sits in it, and no pool is described. Access is unrecorded, so watch for posting. The chemistry was sampled in 1972 and no pH was taken.
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 Bear Lake Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 742 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 17% 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 Bear Lake Hot Springs contains 1560 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), magnesium (known for muscle relaxation and stress relief), and sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation).
Overview St. Charles Campground is situated on its namesake creek in the scenic St. Charles Canyon, approximately 8 miles from Bear Lake State Park and North Beach.Recreation Nearby, the North Fork Trail and its associated trails access the Highline Trail #316. The Highline Trail is part of the National Trail System and is the area's premier trail. It stretches 55 miles along the backbone of the Wasatch Mountains and is open to hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders and motorcyclists, attr...
Bear Lake Hot Springs sits at 5,994 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 24% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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