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.
The record lists this Grant County spring without a name, on Gila National Forest land roughly twenty-seven miles from Arenas Valley, and marks public access open. The water is hot, a little over the line where a soak stops being comfortable. Forks Campground sits a mile and a half away. Nobody has added a photo. The USGS carries a 1957 sample for it.
Half a mile on foot from the closest road, one with no name on record. Forest Service land, designated national forest, at moderate foothill elevation. A middling snowfall arrives each winter. Rainfall is modest and temperatures run mild. Forks Campground is the nearest camp, and nothing else in the way of facilities is on record.
Hot enough to need testing before you sit down. Winter is the noted season and the snow is moderate. Chemistry runs to pH plus sulfate and chloride, from 1957, so the temperature may have drifted since. No fee is recorded. Forks Campground is close, under two miles. Open national forest; walk in.
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 Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 546 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the west
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 60% 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 Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 8.1).
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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.
Spring 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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Spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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