Deerlodge Prison Ranch Springs
These springs sit on the Deer Lodge State Prison Ranch in Powell County, Montana, a bit over eight miles from the town of Deer Lodge. Access is restricted, and that is the headline. The land is listed as a state conservation area with the owner recorded as unknown. The water is warm, short of body temperature. No chemistry was ever taken.
Roadside, off a road the record leaves unnamed, a few hundred feet of ground between car and water. The ranch sits high in a cold valley where snow tops six feet most winters, and precipitation is moderate. Racetrack Cabin, seven miles out, is where you would camp. There is no fee in the record and no USGS site number, which means no chemistry and no flow figure.
Restricted access on prison ranch land means you should not plan a visit without permission from whoever runs the ranch. Winter is listed, which is moot here. The temperature is the only number anyone has taken, and it comes with no recorded date.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 220 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 16% 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.
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Overview Racetrack Cabin is a rustic one room log cabin located along Racetrack Creek in the Flint Range of western Montana, near the Continental Divide. The cabin is remotely located and was built to house miners in the 1930s. It was later donated to the Forest Service and refurbished for use by the public. Guests will be in for a true remote cabin experience with plenty of opportunities for exploration and no distractions from cellular or internet service. There are several motorized and...
Deerlodge Prison Ranch Springs sits at 5,753 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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Deerlodge Prison Ranch Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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