Unnamed Thermal 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.
Valencia County, about 18 miles from Belen: a thermal point without a name, warm water around eighty degrees. The striking figure on file is salinity. A 1941 sample measured dissolved solids at roughly half the strength of seawater, heavy with sodium and iron. Land owner and access are not recorded.
Dry basin ground at about 5,600 feet, where snow is light and rain scarce. Reaching it means half a mile on foot from a road that nobody named on the record. No campground sits within range. With no land unit and no owner written down, there is no way to know if that half mile crosses private property. Nothing describes the outlet itself.
The record's pick is the dead of winter. Verify ownership before you walk in. The brine reading is old, from September 1941, and the temperature may be equally dated. Water this salty leaves a crust, and eighty degrees is merely warm. No fee, no image, no pool on record. The USGS lists the site by number.
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 this spring.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the southwest.
- Highest ground nearby
- 289 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
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 34% 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 This spring contains 17800 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), magnesium (known for muscle relaxation and stress relief), and sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration).
this spring sits at 5,580 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 22% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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