Hammond Ranch Spring
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Hammond Ranch Spring is a warm spring in Lincoln County, roughly twenty-five miles from Pioche, with water in the mid-eighties. That is bath temperature on a hot day and cool enough to notice in winter. The record is thin. Nobody is listed as owner and no water chemistry has been filed. Access was never recorded either. It is close to a road, which counts for a lot out here.
Nearly seven thousand feet, which counts as high country in Nevada. Around two hundred and fifty feet of ground separate it from a road left nameless in the record. Snow is real here, three feet or so most winters, while the year's precipitation stays under a foot. Average temperatures come in cool. What the surrounding ground looks like is nowhere described, and there is no photo.
December through February are the months flagged on record, and with warm water at altitude the cold is the point. Class: roadside. No campground is named and no fee is given. Ownership is the open question and the record does not settle it, so ask locally before you walk in. The temperature carries no sample date.
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 east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 222 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 89% 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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Hammond Ranch Spring sits at 6,828 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 27% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Hammond Ranch Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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