Hot Creek 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.
Hot Creek Springs is scalding water on BLM ground in Elko County, about 34 miles from Wells, under the Wells Field Office, and the public is recorded as welcome. The water surfaces well above the scalding line, so nobody should be getting in without a long cool-down. Slide Creek Campground is within a few miles, and the land designation is public.
Four tenths of a mile on foot gets you in, and nobody wrote down a name for the road. This is high country. Winters pile up close to four feet of snow and the rest of the year brings modest rain. There's no water chemistry at all, and the temperature reading carries no sample date. There is no photo, and no alternate name has been recorded.
January, with December and February, make the listed months, and in high country that means snow on the approach. The water will scald; stay out of it. Public land, open access, no fee listed. Camp at Slide Creek, a few miles off.
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 Hot Creek Springs.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the southeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 211 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
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 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 59% 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.
Slide Creek Campground is located at the trailhead for Slide Creek which accesses the Jarbidge Wilderness(hiking, horse trips, hunting, backpacking), has one single restroom, horse corrals (no horses allowed in the campground), 6 sites, no water, and is free. Not reservable.Located at the springs that feed Slide Creek, and the trailhead for the Slide Creek trail. Aspen and subalpine fir trees provide shade and shelter at the campsites.Appropriate for small trailers, good for tent camping.
Hot Creek Springs sits at 6,140 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 25% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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