Sou (Seven Devils) Hot Springs
Sou, also written Seven Devils, is a scalding spring in Pershing County with Lovelock the nearest town at around forty miles. The water comes out close to boiling, far beyond anything you could touch. Chemistry sampled in 2009 shows a moderately mineralized flow carrying iron. No land owner and no access status are on file, so the ownership question stays open.
Fifty feet of ground separate the road from the source. That is the entire approach. Elevation is modest, about thirty-seven hundred feet, and the climate is dry and nearly snowless, so the drive rarely closes for weather. The road has no name on file. Neither land unit nor designation appears in the record, and no campground sits within its reach.
The cold months get the recommendation on file, though with this little snow the roads should be passable year round. Danger is the main point: water this hot burns instantly and steam can hide the edge of a pool. Keep your distance. Confirm you are allowed on the ground, since no ownership is on record. No camping is listed.
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 Sou (Seven Devils) Hot 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.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the northeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 105 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 27% 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 Sou (Seven Devils) Hot Springs is neutral (pH 6.9) with 1010 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation), and total dissolved solids (higher mineral concentration for therapeutic soaking).
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Sou (Seven Devils) Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully.
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