Butte Springs (Trego Hot Springs)
Trego Hot Springs, which the USGS records as Butte Springs, is a scalding spring in the Black Rock Desert of Pershing County, some fifty-three miles from Lovelock. It sits on BLM land with open access. The source temperature on file is far beyond soaking, hot enough to scald, and the pH runs alkaline.
The road runs almost over it; the nearest road is within thirty feet on the record. The Black Rock Field Office of the BLM manages it. This is the Black Rock Desert at around four thousand feet, eight inches of precipitation yearly and a foot or so of snow.
Winter months rate best. The water at the source will burn; any soaking depends on finding where it has cooled, and the record does not describe that, so go carefully. Roadside and open, with no fee mentioned. The chemistry dates from 1975.
The name Trego comes from the 1910s and a station on the Western Pacific Railroad that stood here soon after the line was built. Before that the springs went by Hot Springs, Kyles Hot Springs in 1864, Butte Spring and Butte Hot Spring. OpenStreetMap uses Trego Hot Springs, the USGS uses Butte Springs, and both are the same water.
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 Butte Springs (Trego 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.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 18 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 40% 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 Butte Springs (Trego Hot Springs) is slightly alkaline (pH 8.2). It is notably rich in sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration) and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Butte Springs (Trego Hot Springs) is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully.
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