Thomas Creek Ranch 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.
Thomas Creek Ranch Hot Spring is hot, near 140 degrees, on state land run by the Idaho Department of Lands in Custer County, about 41 miles from Challis. Access on record is open, and the walk is short, a couple hundred yards. Nothing in the row mentions a ranch, only the state ownership and an SRMA designation.
Around 4,400 feet on Idaho Department of Lands ground, about 350 yards from the closest road. Snow is a bit under a hundred inches a year and precipitation sits in the low twenties. The annual mean lands mid forties. The land carries an SRMA designation, which the record does not expand on. No road name is given, and no fee.
December through February are best, per the record. Boundary Creek Campground is nineteen miles away. The USGS sample is from June 1980 and showed alkaline water. At close to 140 degrees the source will burn; if you soak, it has to be somewhere the water has cooled a lot. Fee is not recorded.
The land is held by the Idaho Department of Lands and designated SRMA in the record. The USGS has a site number for the spring with one 1980 sample.
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 Thomas Creek Ranch Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the north.
- Highest ground nearby
- 136 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
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 74% 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 Thomas Creek Ranch Hot Spring is alkaline (pH 9.3).
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Overview Boundary Creek Campground is located at the edge of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, adjacent to the boat launch for the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. The site generally provides overnight camping for boaters waiting to launch the next day on their permit to float the Middle Fork. Of the 15 campsites, 5 can be reserved during the high-use season (June 15-Aug. 15); the remaining 10 are first-come, first-served. Outside of those dates, all 15 sites are first-...
Thomas Creek Ranch 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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