Kwiskwis 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.
Kwiskwis Hot Spring is a hike-in thermal source on the Boise National Forest in Valley County, with Cascade the nearest town at around forty-six miles. The water is scalding, far too hot to touch where it emerges. Access is open. Expect four miles on foot from the end of the road.
Meadow Creek Lookout Road is the closest road and it stops about four miles short. The spring sits at fifty-six hundred feet, in country that sees eleven feet of snow most winters and a moderate amount of rain. National Forest land. Johnson Creek Guard Station, roughly fourteen miles away, is the closest camping we have.
Midwinter reads driest in our numbers, but the snowpack at this elevation will cover the route in those months. The water will burn you at the source. Do not test it with bare skin. Chemistry and temperature are from a 1979 survey. No fee listed.
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 Kwiskwis Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 794 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, 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 68% 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 Kwiskwis Hot Spring is alkaline (pH 9.0).
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...
Kwiskwis Hot Spring sits at 5,670 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 23% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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