Big 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.
Big Spring is barely warm. The water comes up in the low seventies, far below a soak, on BLM ground in Clark County, Idaho, about thirty miles from Dubois. Open public land, a short walk from a road. No flow figure is on file, and the record gives no date for the temperature reading.
High and cold, close to seven thousand feet, with an average year in the upper thirties and five-plus feet of snow. Rain is scarce. The BLM's Upper Snake Field Office manages it. The walk from the road, which is unnamed on file, is about five hundred feet. Stoddard Creek Campground is nearly twenty-four miles away, the nearest on record.
Winter tops the list of months, which sits oddly with water this cool and snow that deep. Burns are not a concern. Short walk on public land. No fee is written down. Nobody has run the chemistry and there is no USGS site. Camping is a long way off.
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 Spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the northeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 261 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 64% 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.
Overview Stoddard Creek Campground is located just 1 mile off I-15 and 17 miles north of the town of Dubois, Idaho. Visitors come to the area to enjoy the abundance of trails, wildlife viewing opportunities and scenic beauty. Recreation Fishing, hiking, mountain biking, motorcycling and ATV riding are popular activities in the area. The Continental Divide National Scenic Trail can be accessed 8 miles away, where it crosses I-15. Facilities The campground contains one accessible group site tha...
Big Spring sits at 6,900 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 28% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.