Elkhorn Warm Spring
Elkhorn Warm Spring is barely warm, low seventies, on Bureau of Land Management ground in Madison County about twelve miles from Rexburg. The record marks it open and puts it a tenth-mile walk from the road. The water is nowhere near bath temperature, and nobody has sampled its chemistry, so the reading on the thermometer is the whole of what is known about the water. A photo is on file.
BLM public land under the Upper Snake Field Office, at about fifty-three hundred feet. Winters bring under four feet of snow, a fairly dry place overall at eighteen inches. The walk from the road is short, road unnamed. Kelly Island Campground is under four miles off per the record. Nothing describes the ground or the water at the spring.
The record favors winter, and with modest snow that is reachable. Open access on BLM land. Kelly Island for camping, a few miles. The temperature is the one hard fact here, and it rules out a soak, so go for the place and the walk and expect cool water.
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 Elkhorn Warm 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
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 392 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 twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 70% 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.
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Scenic, semi-developed camping in a cottonwood gallery forest along the South Fork of the Snake River with views of the Snake River Range foothills. Excellent trout fishing along with hiking, boating, wildlife viewing and OHV riding opportunities nearby. Approximate use season: Mid-May to mid/late September. The Kelly Island Campground has no electrical hook-ups and ATV's are not allowed to be ridden in the campground. This site is equipped with a central spicket for water, vault toilets, pul...
Elkhorn Warm Spring sits at 5,283 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 21% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Elkhorn Warm Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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