Bridge Hot Springs
Hot enough to hurt. Bridge Hot Springs in Camas County runs in the high 130s at the source, which rules out stepping straight in. It lies off East Hot Springs drive, roughly 28 miles from Fairfield, with Elks Flat Campground within half a mile. No land owner appears on file and access is not recorded, so whether you can legally walk up to it is an open question.
Roadside, a bit over a hundred feet from the pavement. The spring sits at around 4,400 feet in a part of south central Idaho that gets about eight feet of snow a year and modest rain otherwise. That puts it between the wet forests to the north and the dry plain to the south. A photo is on file if you want a sense of the ground before committing to the drive.
Plan on winter if you go by the best months on file, but eight feet of snow means the road surface matters more than the calendar. The campground is close. Water this hot has to be cooled before it touches skin, and the single pH reading on record, a high one, dates to 1981. Confirm that the spring is open to the public; the record does not say.
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 Bridge 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.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the south.
- Highest ground nearby
- 457 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
A slice through the ground from south to north, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 75% 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 Bridge Hot Springs is alkaline (pH 9.5).
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Overview Elks Flat Campground is situated on the banks of the South Fork Boise River, at the foot of the Trinity Mountain Range in Idaho. It is five miles north of the town of Pine. Visitors enjoy fishing, swimming and exploring trails in the surrounding area. Recreation The South Fork Boise River runs along the eastern edge of the campground, offering rafting, swimming and fishing for rainbow trout. Paradise Hot Springs is nearby. Green Creek Trail 270, a 4.5-mile trail for hiking, horsebac...
Bridge Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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