Ennis 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.
Ennis Hot Springs in Madison County, Montana, eleven miles from Virginia City, is a scalding source. The water emerges far above the temperature that burns skin, closer to a kettle than a bath. Nobody has recorded an owner or an access status. The USGS analysis, from 1976, shows near-neutral, mineralized water.
Snipe Lane is the nearest road, about a hundred feet off. The Madison valley sits at moderate elevation with close to six feet of snow between fall and spring and modest rainfall. Axolotl Cabin is the camping on file, about as far off as Virginia City. No land unit is listed, so whose ground this is remains an open question.
This heat scalds on the instant, so stay out of the source entirely. To soak you would need the water cooled a long way down, and nothing on record suggests that happens. Who owns it and who can go there are both unknown. Cold months are the ones flagged as best. The chemistry numbers are half a century old.
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 Ennis Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the west.
- Highest ground nearby
- 29 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the west
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 41% 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 Ennis Hot Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.7).
Overview The Dillon Field Office is unable to make reservations for you. Please call Recreation.gov (877-444-6777) to book a reservation or book online. Axolotl Cabin is located approximately 14 miles southwest of Ennis, Montana, in the foothills of the Gravelly Range. The cabin provides access to a variety of outdoor recreational activities and breathtaking views as it peers over the Madison Valley. The cabin is at an elevation of about 7,000 feet and is adjacent to Axolotl Lakes Wildernes...
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Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.7)
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