Hot Spring
Several thermal points inside Lake Mead National Recreation Area carry the bare name Hot Spring, and this is one of them. It is in Clark County about thirteen miles from Boulder City, on National Park Service land with open access. You reach it on foot. The water is warm, high seventies, pleasant in a desert winter. Chemistry on file dates from January 1976.
The approach is a hike of a bit over two miles, starting at a road the record leaves unnamed, down at 670 feet in low desert. Snow does not fall here in any average year. Five inches of rain is a typical twelve months and the mean temperature is in the mid-seventies, so summer will be hot. There is no photo and no description of the spring where it surfaces.
Winter, December into February, is the season on record and the one that makes sense for a low-desert hike. Access is open, land is Park Service. The record shows no fee and no campground, though Lake Mead NRA is a managed unit and the park's rules apply. Temperature and pH come from 1976, so 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 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
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 533 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 60% 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 Hot Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 7.6). It is notably rich in chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. Bring sun protection for exposed soaking.
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Springs Near Hot Spring
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Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.6)
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