Marten 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.
Deep inside the Nezperce National Forest, Marten Hot Springs is a backcountry thermal site roughly eight and a half miles from the nearest road and better than thirty miles out of Hamilton. Whoever surveyed it wrote the water down as hot and left no number, so there is no temperature on file and no basis for calling it a soak. Public access is listed as open. OpenStreetMap spells it Martin.
This is wet, heavily snowed country in Ravalli County. Upwards of fourteen feet of snow falls in an average winter and the precipitation is heavy, a different climate entirely from the dry springs of southern Idaho. Elevation is moderate, around forty-five hundred feet. Reaching it is a backcountry trip by any measure. The record has no trail in it, so route-finding falls to you.
no best months is on record. Given the snowfall, the practical window is the snow-free part of the year, and you should confirm conditions with the forest before committing. Paradise Campground, seventeen miles distant, is the closest camping the record knows of. Nobody charges anything, as far as the record goes. Treat the temperature as unknown. Hot could mean anything, and the source might be too hot to enter.
The USGS lists a thermal site for this spring, and OpenStreetMap carries the name as Martin Hot Springs, one letter different from the name used here.
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 Marten Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 819 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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 8% 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.
Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Paradise Campground is located near the Paradise Boating Site which is one of the most popular launching sites on the Selway River. The campground consists of 11 sites complete with picnic tables, and fire rings. Other facilities include 3 vault toilets, hitching rails, and feed bunks. Campground can accommodate RV's or trailers to 25 feet.
Marten Hot Springs requires a hike to reach, so pack light but prepared. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Springs Near Marten Hot Springs
Hike 6 waterfalls near Marten Hot Springs
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Marten Hot Springs, Idaho.