Skillern 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.
Skillern Hot Springs sits on Sawtooth National Forest ground in Camas County, twenty miles from Fairfield, and you walk in. The water is hot, right at the upper edge of that range on the 1981 reading, and strongly alkaline. It is open, as far as access goes. Plan on two and a half miles on foot each way.
Two and a half miles of walking from an unnamed road is what the record describes. High ground, national forest, managed by the Forest Service. Snow runs around twelve feet a winter. The yearly average temperature sits in the low forties, and the precipitation figure is moderate.
Bowns Campground is about four miles distant. December through February are listed as best, which with this much snow is worth thinking about before you commit to the walk. Where it surfaces the water can scald; check before you sit. That 1981 number may have drifted since.
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 Skillern Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 668 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 52% 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 Skillern Hot Springs is alkaline (pH 9.4).
Bowns Campground, located 25 miles east of Featherville and 18 miles north of Fairfield, is a developed campground composed of 10 units along Big Smoky Creek. Two of the camp sites are double family units. Camping, fishing, hiking, and picnicking are popular activities. Campground amenities include picnic tables, fire rings, drinking water (seasonally) and restrooms. Miller Creek Trail (#087) starts just south of the campground and is open to motorcycles.
Skillern Hot Springs sits at 5,820 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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