Big 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.
Big Creek Hot Springs comes out of the ground close to boiling. The spot is Salmon National Forest land in Lemhi County, Idaho, twenty-three miles or so from Salmon. Open public land, Forest Service, reached by a short walk. Nobody should touch the source water. The USGS sampled it in 1982 and keeps a site record here.
You walk a third of a mile to reach the road, and nobody recorded a name for it. Elevation runs around forty-three hundred feet. Seven feet of snow or so falls annually, part of twenty-some inches of precipitation, and the mean temperature sits in the forties. Wallace Lake Campground is the closest camping known, almost seventeen miles off. The forest here is open to anyone.
Scalding, full stop. Look, do not step in. Nothing about a cooled pool shows up, so there is nothing here to soak in. December through February gets the nod, which with seven feet of snow makes for a cold approach. No fee. Public, Forest Service.
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 Big Creek Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 721 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
A slice through the ground from north to south, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 43% 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 Big Creek Hot Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.6).
12 campsites on Wallace Lake with picnic tables and fire rings. Within the campground are vault toilets and drinking water. Fishing in the lake. Primitive boat launch can be used for non-motorized canoes or rowboats on the lake. The drive on Salmon River Mountain Road offers fantastic views of the Salmon River Range and of deep pine forests.
Springs Near Big Creek Hot Springs
More Springs Around 199°F
Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.6)
Hike 6 waterfalls near Big Creek Hot Springs
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Big Creek Hot Springs, Idaho.