Horse Creek 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.
Horse Creek Hot Springs sits in the Salmon National Forest, Lemhi County, thirty-some miles from the town of Salmon. The temperature is right in the range people look for, soaking warm, about what a hot bath feels like. Access is open according to our records. The water tested slightly acidic when it was sampled in 1980.
You can see the road from the spring; the gap is about twenty yards. Its name did not make it into our records. The elevation is around six thousand feet, so winters bring real snow, nine or ten feet of it in an average year. Alta Campground, about eleven miles distant, is where our data puts the closest camping. The land is plain National Forest with no wilderness or other designation attached.
Midwinter rates best in our climate numbers, but that is a high-country road in winter and nothing in our record says it gets plowed. Roadside access means no walking to speak of. No fee is listed. Temperature comes from a 1980 USGS survey, so expect some drift from the figure in the table.
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 Horse Creek Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 441 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 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 22% 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 Horse Creek Hot Springs is slightly acidic (pH 6.4).
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Overview Alta Campground is located in a scenic forest in the heart of Montana's Bitterroot National Forest. The West Fork of the Bitterroot River flows nearby, giving visitors access to some of the best fishing the area has to offer, as well as other water-related recreation. Recreation Fly fishing and wading in the Bitterroot River, which runs alongside the campground, are popular activities. A variety of trails and unimproved roads are great for exploring by bike or off-road vehicle. Hiki...
Horse Creek Hot Springs sits at 6,080 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 24% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Horse Creek Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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