Sacajawea 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.
Sacajawea Hot Springs is scalding at the source. The water would burn you in seconds. It sits at the roadside in Boise National Forest, Boise County, a short way off Grandjean Road and about forty miles from Idaho City. Access is recorded as open, and Bonneville campground sits seven miles off.
Five thousand feet up in heavy snow country. Fifteen feet most winters, and wet the rest of the year. Grandjean Road passes within a few dozen yards of the source, and once the road is open you can step from the car to the water. Forest Service land with the ordinary National Forest designation. No water chemistry is on file for it.
The best season on record is winter. At this temperature the source itself is off limits to skin. Any soaking happens only where the hot water has mixed with cold, and you test that first every time. Bonneville is the listed campground. No fee shows up. Snow load means checking Grandjean Road before you go.
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 Sacajawea Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 1,019 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
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 88% 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.
Overview Bonneville Campground is 19 miles east of Lowman, Idaho just off Highway 21 at an elevation of 4,700 feet. Warm Springs Creek runs alongside the campground and the South Fork Payette River lies across the highway. Visitors enjoy soaking at Bonneville Hot Springs a short distance above the campground, and fishing in the creek and river.Recreation A 1/4-mile hiking trail leads from the campground to Bonneville Hot Springs, where a soaking pool awaits. Warm Springs Creek offers good tro...
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