Fivemile Spring (Hoghouse Hot Sprs)
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Fivemile Spring, also called Hoghouse Hot Springs, is a tepid source on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, about forty-seven miles out from Hines. Dip a hand in and it reads mild, well below bath heat. Fish and Wildlife Service management restricts who gets in. A USGS site number is attached to it as well.
The Frenchglen Highway runs past under three hundred feet away. High desert refuge country, dry, with light snow. Page Springs Campground is about six miles off, the only campground the record associates with the spring.
Winter months are listed as best. There is no soaking to speak of at this temperature, and the restricted status means asking the refuge what is allowed before you do anything beyond look. Camp at Page Springs. No fee noted. The USGS logged the temperature; no sample date is given and no water chemistry was filed.
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 Fivemile Spring (Hoghouse Hot Sprs).
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the west.
- Highest ground nearby
- 222 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the west
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 close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 12% 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.
Overview Page Springs Campground is located at the base of Steens Mountain, just three miles from the town of Frenchglen, Oregon. Thrity-six roomy campsites situated under cottonwood and juniper trees and near the Donner and Blitzen River welcome visitors year-round. The campground serves as the trailhead for two short hikes: the Blitzen River Trail meanders four miles up the river, while the Wilderness Nature Trail climbs gradually to the top of the bluff overlooking the valley floor and l...