Unnamed Thermal Spring
Thirty-one feet off Old State Route 34 in Pershing County, nearly sixty miles from Lovelock, an unnamed spring pours out water a few degrees below boiling. Nothing on file names the landowner or says if the public may stop here. The USGS sampled it in late November 1979 and logged mildly alkaline water carrying iron along with the usual salts. A photograph is on file.
Roadside, as close as it gets, right beside Old State Route 34. Low basin elevation and dry, with eighteen inches of snow in an average winter. No land owner or unit has been recorded, so there is nothing to say about who manages the ground. No campground listed. Annual temperatures average in the mid-fifties.
The rated months are December through February. This water will scald instantly. Look, do not touch. Land ownership and access are both unknown, so assume nothing about being allowed past the road shoulder. No fee listed, and the only chemistry dates from 1979.
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 this 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 west.
- Highest ground nearby
- 334 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 21% 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 This spring is slightly alkaline (pH 8.1). It is notably rich in sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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this spring 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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