Mcleod Ranch 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.
A long way from Tonopah, around sixty-five miles, Mcleod Ranch Hot Spring is a scalding source on BLM land in Nye County, managed out of the Mount Lewis Field Office. Public access is open. The water is far past soaking temperature at the source. Getting there involves a hike of more than a mile.
The nearest road is about a mile and a half away, and the record gives it no name. The spring sits at mid elevation for Nye County, high enough to pick up close to three feet of snow in a typical winter, with ten inches of precipitation over the year. BLM ground, open to the public.
The source will scald. Water this hot needs a long run before anyone could sit in it, and the record is silent on any cooler pool. The calendar on file points to the dead of winter. With a hike of over a mile and snow likely in those months, plan accordingly. No campground is recorded nearby. Tonopah is the nearest town on file and it is far.
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 Mcleod Ranch Hot Spring.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 2 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 47% 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.
Mcleod Ranch Hot Spring sits at 5,498 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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