Holdover 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.
Holdover Hot Spring, which OpenStreetMap labels Mile 15 Hot Spring, comes out hot enough that you would want to let it cool before getting in. It is Payette National Forest ground in Valley County, a little over twenty miles from McCall, and public access is listed as open. The flow is a trickle by USGS measurement, a few hundredths of a cubic foot per second.
South Fork Salmon River Road passes within about a hundred yards, so this counts as roadside. The ground is Forest Service, with no special designation beyond that. This drainage is snowy, averaging well over a dozen feet a year, and wet in general. Johnson Creek Guard Station, a dozen miles out, is the nearest place to camp on record.
Our data puts the best months in midwinter, though with this much snowfall the road is the question, and we have no record of when it closes. The water is hot, above body temperature by a wide margin, so test it before you sit down. The chemistry on file is from a 1980 survey. Access is open per the record; no fee is listed.
The USGS logged this as a thermal site and sampled it in June 1980, when the water tested strongly alkaline. Mile 15 Hot Spring is the name OpenStreetMap uses.
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 Holdover Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 649 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
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 50% 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 Holdover Hot Spring is alkaline (pH 9.6).
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Overview Johnson Creek Guard Station was built in 1922 and offers a charming mountain respite with modern conveniences. The cabin offers nearly everything needed for a pleasant and comfortable stay. Peak season for the cabin is typically early June through late September. It can be accessed by most vehicles via dirt and gravel roads, but trailers are not recommended.Recreation The cabin is near several trailheads into the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness. These non-motorized tr...
Holdover Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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