Hot Spring
A thermal point three miles from Wells in Elko County, on BLM ground managed by the Wells Field Office, with open access and a photo on file. Its name on file is the plain Hot Spring. It is flagged hot, with no measured temperature behind the flag, so assume heat and verify before you touch it. Metropolis Road is the closest road, a few hundred feet away.
Short walk from Metropolis Road, a few hundred feet, over public land at around fifty-six hundred feet. This is cool country. Roughly three feet of snow falls in a normal winter and the year brings eleven inches of precipitation. The annual mean is in the high forties. The photo on file is the only description of the site.
No best months are on record, and the snow argues for the warm months. Camping is at Angel Creek in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, a bit over eight miles away. Access open, no fee listed. Since the temperature is unrecorded, treat the water as potentially too hot until you have tested it.
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
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the south.
- Highest ground nearby
- 141 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
A slice through the ground from north to south, 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 75% 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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Overview Angel Creek Campground is located on the grassy foothills of the East Humboldt Mountain Range, just eight miles southwest of Wells, Nev. It sits at an elevation of 6,200 feet. Visitors enjoy making the short drive to Angel Lake for canoeing and fishing.Recreation Beautiful Angel Lake is just four miles from the campground, offering great canoeing and fishing for rainbow and brook trout.Smith Lake Trail begins at the entrance to Angel Lake Campground, with a designated day use parking...
Hot Spring sits at 5,621 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 22% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Hot Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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