Allen 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.
Allen Springs runs warm in the tepid sense, a shade under body heat, about nine miles out of Silver City, Grant County, New Mexico. Gila National Forest covers the ground and the Forest Service sets the rules here, with access open. The chemistry rests on one 1954 sample, ancient as these readings go.
Middling elevation, and the country is dry with thin snow and not much rain. The road, unnamed in the record, quits a third-mile short of the water and the rest is walking. Gila National Forest surrounds it. No fee is listed.
Forks Campground is the closest listed, about twenty-two miles off, so do not count on camping next door. The three winter months are best on record and with so little snow the winter window is real. The temperature reading is from 1954; treat it as a rough guide. Since the land is federal forest nobody's permission is needed. No photo on file.
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 Allen Springs.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the south.
- Highest ground nearby
- 206 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
A slice through the ground from south to north, 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 25% 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 Allen Springs contains 404 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in magnesium (known for muscle relaxation and stress relief).
This campground features beautiful cliffs along the West Fork of the Gila River.This campground is a great place to stop on the way to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (15 miles north). Overnight camping is allowed in the upper portion of Forks; however, the lower portion of the Forks Recreation Site along the West Fork of the Gila River is day use only.
Allen Springs sits at 5,800 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 23% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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