Double O Barnyard 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.
Double O Barnyard Spring is a USGS-monitored warm spring on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, twenty-two miles from Hines. The water is only tepid, and the refuge lists access as restricted. Put those together and this is a place to read about, a data point on the refuge's hydrology. A soak is out.
A road passes within a hundred feet, unnamed in the record. Title sits with the Fish and Wildlife Service, refuge ground, which is why access is restricted. Harney Basin country, a bit past four thousand feet. Snow in winter runs about two feet, and the rain over a year does not add up to much.
Winter ranks highest on the record, but with restricted access on refuge land the season matters less than permission. Contact the refuge before planning anything. The water was sampled in late 2019 and came back slightly alkaline. No campground is listed nearby, and the temperature is far too cool for soaking anyway.
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 Double O Barnyard Spring.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 33 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 10% 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 Double O Barnyard Spring is slightly alkaline (pH 7.8).