Rose Creek 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.
Rose Creek Spring is public land, BLM, in Humboldt County about thirteen miles from Winnemucca, and the water runs warm, well short of bath heat. Access is open. The main thing the record has to say about it, beyond the temperature, is a 1961 water sample heavy in dissolved solids.
West Rose Creek Road runs within a few hundred feet, a short walk. The land belongs to the Humboldt River Field Office. Elevation is low for the area, around 4,300 feet, dry at ten inches of precipitation and winter snow that totals under two feet. What the spring looks like is not recorded.
December to February on the record. Open, and free as far as the record shows. No campground listed. The 1961 sample showed high dissolved solids, over 2,600 milligrams per liter, with iron in it, so the water is mineral-heavy even if cool. A short walk from the road. Winnemucca is close enough that this is an easy look.
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 Rose Creek Spring.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the southeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 63 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, 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 71% 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 Rose Creek Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 8.3) with 2650 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in magnesium (known for muscle relaxation and stress relief), sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).