Mormon Bend Hot Spring
Mormon Bend Hot Spring runs body-warm, right where most people want it. It belongs to the Challis National Forest, Custer County, Idaho, some 35 miles out of Challis, and the Salmon River Scenic Byway passes close by. The record has it open. No water chemistry is on file for this one, though a photograph is.
From the byway it is under five hundred feet on foot. Forest Service land, no designation beyond National Forest. The elevation is fairly high, the average temperature cool, and winter brings a heavy snowpack, better than ten feet on average. The record gives Challis as the only town, so the byway is the reference point for finding this one.
The record favors winter. Pole Flat Campground is about six and a half miles off. The temperature is comfortable and needs no warning. Chemistry was never sampled here, so mineral content is unknown. Check current conditions on the byway before a winter trip. The snow on record is heavy, so the walk in will be a different proposition in the cold months.
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 Mormon Bend 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.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 406 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
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 91% 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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This campground is away from the main road and up the hill overlooking the river and the dredge ponds. Campsites include picnic tables tent pads fire rings with cooking grills. Campground amenities include a vault toilet and drinking water. Sites accommodate trailers and motorhomes up to 32 feet long.
Mormon Bend Hot Spring sits at 6,110 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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Mormon Bend Hot 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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