Cook 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.
Cook Spring sits under two miles outside Socorro, in Socorro County. Tepid water, right around seventy. Dissolved minerals are low for a New Mexico thermal spring; a 1977 sample showed a near neutral pH and a little iron. This is a USGS thermal point. Public access has never been recorded, and no land owner is on file, so the map pin is most of what exists.
A short walk, a tenth of a mile or so, from the closest road in the low desert that surrounds Socorro. Snow is light and rain scarce, eight inches in a typical year. Summers at this elevation run hot. The record has nothing on who owns the ground or which unit it belongs to, which is common for springs this near a town.
Check land status before you go, because the record is silent on it. Winter reads best in the climate numbers. Water Canyon Campground is the closest listed camping, around eleven miles out. The water reading dates to the seventies, so treat it as approximate. At seventy degrees it is wading water.
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 Cook Spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the west.
- Highest ground nearby
- 368 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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 11% 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 Cook Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 7.7) with 264 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in iron (iron-rich springs may support circulation).
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This campground is located at an elevation of 6,800 feet in the Magdalena Mountains.
Cook Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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Springs Near Cook Spring
More Springs Around 70°F
Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.7)
Hike 1 waterfall near Cook Spring
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Cook Spring, New Mexico.