Big Smokey Hot 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.
A hike-in thermal point in the Sawtooth National Forest, Camas County, Idaho, Big Smokey Hot Spring lies about twenty-five miles from Fairfield. It is recorded as hot without a temperature figure, so the heat is unquantified. Access is open. The walk from Baker Creek Road is a little over four miles. Bowns Campground, the listed camping, is close to ten miles off.
Over six thousand feet, in country where the winter snow total passes twelve feet. Average temperatures are cold. The approach is a four-mile hike on national forest land, one way, from Baker Creek Road. No designation beyond national forest. A USGS site number exists; no water sample does.
No season ranking, because no temperature. Twelve feet of snow makes the walk a summer question. Bowns is the campground the record gives, some distance from the spring. The source calls the water hot. Until your hand says otherwise, assume it can burn. Open access, Forest Service rules.
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 Smokey Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 563 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 about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 49% 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.
Bowns Campground, located 25 miles east of Featherville and 18 miles north of Fairfield, is a developed campground composed of 10 units along Big Smoky Creek. Two of the camp sites are double family units. Camping, fishing, hiking, and picnicking are popular activities. Campground amenities include picnic tables, fire rings, drinking water (seasonally) and restrooms. Miller Creek Trail (#087) starts just south of the campground and is open to motorcycles.
Big Smokey Hot Spring sits at 6,320 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 25% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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