Black Rock Hot Spring
Black Rock Hot Spring is a hot spring on Bureau of Land Management ground in Pershing County, in the Black Rock country about sixty miles from Lovelock. The source runs too hot to sit in straight, well above bath temperature though short of scalding. It is listed open to the public. OpenStreetMap knows it by the same name.
You drive to it. A hundred-odd feet separate the spring from the closest road, an unnamed one, and the ground is BLM, Black Rock Field Office. Elevation is around four thousand feet. This is dry country: seven inches of rain and snow combined in a typical year and about a foot of snow in winter, so the approach is seldom snowbound.
December through February is what the climate points to. Stay in contact long enough and this water burns. Test first, then hunt for the spot where it has cooled off. Access is open and it sits right by the road. No fee is noted. The chemistry comes from a 1980 sample that read close to neutral.
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 Black Rock 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.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 393 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 21% 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 Black Rock Hot Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 7.5). It is notably rich in sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration) and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Black Rock Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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