Alhambra Hot Springs
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Alhambra Hot Springs lies a mile from Clancy in Jefferson County, Montana. The water emerges hot, a hair short of the point where it burns skin on contact, and it carries a good load of dissolved minerals including iron. Whether anyone can walk up and use it is not recorded, and no owner is on record.
Warm Springs Creek Road passes within about three hundred feet. You would not call it a hike. The valley here sits at mid elevation for Montana, where a typical winter drops close to five feet of snow, and rainfall is middling. Strawberry Cabin, under four miles away, is the camping we have on file.
Winter is the season the record favors. Put a hand in where the water emerges and it will scald, so do not. Who owns the land and who may enter are both unrecorded, and the water analysis is from 1976; confirm both before you go. No fee is listed, which only means nobody recorded one.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the southwest.
- Highest ground nearby
- 193 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
A slice through the ground from west to east, 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 59% 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 Alhambra Hot Springs contains 651 mg/L total dissolved solids.
Overview Explore a magnificent recreation and wildlife resource at the doorstep of Montana's Capital City. From prairie to alpine, mayflies to mountain goats, and scenic driving to expert climbing routes -- the Elkhorns you will discover a diverse landscape! Built in 1941, Strawberry Cabin lies at the top of Strawberry Butte (6,100 feet) in the heart of the Elkhorn Mountains. The combination of lookout and log cabin are typical of this period. The cabin is an excellent example of a C-46 one...
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