Cove Creek 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.
Small and barely flowing, Cove Creek Hot Spring in Payette County sits about 14 miles from the town of Payette. The water comes out in the low 130s, hot, but the discharge on record is a trickle, one hundredth of a cubic foot per second, so do not picture a pool. Ownership and access are not recorded. Mann Creek Campground is the only camping listed, and it is 17 miles away.
Low country, dry, with under two feet of snow most years and little rain, and summers that run hot. Skow Road gets you close. The last fifth of a mile or so is on foot. Nothing else about the terrain is on record, with no image to fill the gap.
Winter is the best season on file, and at this elevation that is believable. The flow is tiny, so expect damp ground more than water. Temperature and chemistry were both measured in 1973 and nothing newer is on record. Ownership is the thing to settle before you go, because the record is silent on it.
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 Cove Creek Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 211 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 15% 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 Cove Creek Hot Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 7.4). It is notably rich in sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
Overview Mann Creek Campground is located near the Mann Creek Reservoir in the foothills of the West Central Mountains in western Idaho near the Payette National Forest. The reservoir is a popular boating and fishing destination. 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....
Springs Near Cove Creek Hot Spring
More Springs Around 131°F
Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.4)
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