Hot Springs
Listed only as Hot Springs, this is thermal water at Borax Lake in Harney County, far from anywhere; Hines, the nearest town on file, is close to ninety miles off. The water is scalding, near boiling, and the ground is held by a nonprofit under a private conservation designation. Public access is recorded as unknown. Nobody should plan a soak here.
Borax Lake Road ends about nine tenths of a mile short, so there is a walk across flat desert at roughly four thousand feet. Snow is light, under two feet, and rain is scarce. The land owner is listed as an NGO and the unit as Borax Lake, with a conservation designation attached.
Winter months are listed best, December through February. South Steens Campground, twenty-three miles away, is the closest camping on record. The water is hot enough to kill, so keep to firm ground and away from any pool edge. Since access is unknown and the land is private conservation ground, find out from the owner before visiting. A photo exists on the 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 Hot 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.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 5 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
A slice through the ground from south to north, 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.
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Overview:South Steens Campground is located in the heart of Steens Mountain. Visitors will find picnic tables and grills at 36 family campsites amid juniper and sage. The equestrian site, designed specifically for horse users, is directly adjacent to the family campground. Recreational stock (horses, mules, llamas, goats, etc.) are not allowed in the family portion of South Steens Campground, but are welcome and comfortable at 15 equestrian sites complete with tie posts and small corrals.Know...
Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully.
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