Warm 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.
Warm Springs carries a modest name for water that runs hot on file, well above anything you could sit in without cooling. It lies on Zia Pueblo land in Sandoval County about nine miles from Jemez Pueblo, and access is recorded as unknown. The tribal ownership and the heat together mean this is a spring to know about, and one to ask about before going near.
Jemez country here, a little over 6,100 feet up. Winters bring real snow and the rest of the year runs dry. The road you leave the car on goes unnamed, and a fifth of a mile of walking gets you to the water. Zia Pueblo land. Camping means Vista Linda Campground, about ten miles off. Nobody described the outlet.
Contact the Pueblo of Zia before any visit; the record has no permission noted. The water is hot enough to burn with prolonged contact, and no cooled pool is described. A July 1946 sample found moderate dissolved solids. January is as good as it gets here, by the record. No fee on record.
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 Warm Springs.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 85 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 52% 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 Warm Springs contains 735 mg/L total dissolved solids.
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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...
Warm Springs sits at 6,140 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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Warm Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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