Boulder Creek Spring
A warm spring, and only warm. Boulder Creek Spring in Valley County measures in the low eighties, which passes for bath temperature on a summer day and does nothing for you in the cold. It sits off Boulder Creek Road about 22 miles from McCall. There is no record of an owner and none of whether the public may go. A photo exists, which is more than most of the small Idaho springs can claim.
The spring is a few dozen feet off the road, close enough that you would see it from the driver's seat if you knew where to look. Elevation is low by Idaho standards, about three thousand feet, but the snow still comes in hard, over twelve feet in a normal winter. Annual precipitation is high too. Expect a wet green valley with a muddy shoulder season.
The winter months get the best-time nod on file, yet with this much snow the road may be the limiting factor, so ask locally. Grouse Campground is the nearest developed camping, a little under twelve miles away. The water chemistry, which leans very alkaline, was sampled in 1980 and has not been updated since. Landownership and access both need checking.
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 Boulder Creek 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.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 526 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 34% 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 Boulder Creek Spring is alkaline (pH 9.9).
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Overview Grouse Campground is located just 16 miles from McCall, Idaho, on the shores of Goose Lake. Visitors enjoy canoeing, fishing and horseback riding. Once on-site, you may be able to pay for your campsite(s) by scanning a QR code using the Recreation.gov mobile app, and the Scan and Pay feature. If this option is available, you will need to first download the free Recreation.gov mobile app https://www.recreation.gov/mobile-app prior to your arrival as some remote areas have limited or...
Boulder Creek Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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