Twelvemile 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.
Twelvemile Spring, nine miles from Wells in Elko County, comes out at a soaking warm temperature, a touch over body heat. It sits roughly 240 feet from a road. Owner and public access are both unrecorded, which is the main thing to sort out before you go. No USGS number, photo or chemistry is attached.
You can pull up right at it, though the road goes unnamed. Close to six thousand feet, high ground, with about three feet of snow in a typical winter. Precipitation is moderate by Nevada standards. Nothing ties it to a land unit or a designation.
The record puts January at the top, then the months either side of it. Angel Creek campground, in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, is the closest on the record, roughly fifteen miles off. Soaking warm water from an undated reading. No fee or chemistry on file. Ownership unknown; check. Access is roadside, so no walking.
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 Twelvemile Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 633 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 70% 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.
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...
Twelvemile Spring sits at 5,901 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 24% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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