Jemez Springs
Jemez Springs in Sandoval County is the hottest kind of spring, scalding at the source, and nowhere near something you would lower yourself into. Jemez Pueblo is the closest town listed, around twelve miles. Nobody has recorded an owner, and the access question is open. The entry includes a photo. What you have here is a thermal source worth knowing about, with the caveat that the temperature reading dates to the seventies.
The spring sits beside the road, a few car lengths off, at a moderately high elevation in the Jemez country. Winters here are snowy enough to shut things down for stretches, and the annual precipitation is middling. Average temperatures run cool. Vista Linda Campground is a little over four miles away. The entry skips land unit and owner entirely.
Scalding water. Do not touch the source without testing the edge first, and keep children and dogs back. Winter carries the best-months flag, which is odd for a place with this much snow, so read it as a quiet-season note. Vista Linda is the closest camp. The chemistry on file is limited to pH and chloride from 1975. Confirm who owns the ground before planning anything.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 343 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
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 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 56% 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 Jemez Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.3). It is notably rich in chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Overview Vista Linda Campground is a first come, first serve campground in the San Diego Canyon on the Jemez National Recreation Area. There are thirteen sites throughout the campground. Potable water and vault toilets are provided amenities. Each campsite has picnic tables, a fire ring, and a charcoal pedestal. Sites with shad features are available; not all sites provide shade features. Recreation Vista Linda Campground is one of five developed campgrounds in the Jemez National Recreation...
Jemez Springs sits at 6,207 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 25% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Jemez Springs 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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