Aragon Springs
Right off NM 12 in Catron County, New Mexico, twenty miles from Reserve, Aragon Springs comes up barely warm, the low end of what counts as thermal, and a 1978 sample found it lightly mineralized with a touch of iron. Access is open on Gila National Forest land.
A short walk of about five hundred feet from the highway, at fairly high elevation for this part of New Mexico. Snow is light, rain is modest. Forest Service ground, no fee or bathhouse on record. Reserve is the only town the record names nearby.
Apache Creek Campground is under nine miles away. Winter is what the record lists as best, and with light snow that is a reasonable plan. Do not expect a hot soak; the temperature on record is close to cool, and the 1978 reading is old enough that it may have drifted. Access is open. A photo is 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 Aragon 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
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 507 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 59% 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 Aragon Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 8.0) with 160 mg/L total dissolved solids.
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This is a nice quiet undeveloped campground amongst ponderosa pines and abundant wildlife.Apache Creek Campground is in the northwest region of the forest. There are plenty of trees to provide shade and this is a very clean campground.
Aragon Springs sits at 6,800 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 27% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Aragon Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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