Owen Cabin 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.
Owen Cabin Hot Spring is a five-mile hike from Loon Creek Road in the Challis National Forest, Custer County, something like twenty-seven miles from Challis. The water at the source runs hot, well above soaking temperature. The access entry says open. This is the kind of spring you plan a day or an overnight around.
High mountain country, with a winter snowpack around eight feet and moderate precipitation. Five miles on foot each way from the road. The Forest Service holds the land and it carries the plain National Forest designation. Nothing on file describes the route or the source itself. Carry everything, since there is no development on record at the source.
Best months on record run December through February. That is a strange answer for a spring behind five miles of trail in snow country, so read it as the soak being best in cold air and plan the trip for whenever the route is passable. Custer #1 Campground is eighteen miles away, the only camping on record. Nothing about a fee. Test before entering; the outlet is hot enough to burn.
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 Owen Cabin Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 368 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 70% 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 Owen Cabin Hot Spring is alkaline (pH 9.3).
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This campground is along the Custer Motorway just above the townsite of Custer, a boom town during the late 1800's. Visit the museum, open 9 - 5 Memorial Day through Labor Day. Facilities include 6 sites with picnic tables and fire rings with cooking grills. Campground has a vault toilet and can accommodate trailers and motorhomes up to 32 feet long.
Owen Cabin Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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