Nelson Spring
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Nelson Spring is a warm spring in Baker County, 26 miles or so from Baker City. The water is below body heat, warm enough to notice and cooler than a bath. Land ownership is not on record, and neither is whether visitors are allowed, so treat it as unverified until you know more. It appears on the map as a single point with no secondary name and no water chemistry on file.
A road runs within a few hundred feet, and the record does not give it a name. At roughly twenty-seven hundred feet the spring sits in the lower country of Baker County. Winter snowfall is moderate, a bit over three feet, and the year is on the dry side with about sixteen inches of precipitation.
Midwinter, January especially, is the season on file. Kiwanis Campground is the nearest camping listed, close to 23 miles away. Since access and ownership are both blank in the record, confirm the land status before walking over from the road.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
- Setting
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 237 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
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 about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 29% 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.
This is a one-unit dispersed camping area along Mann Creek. It is next to the road so it can be noisy and dusty. There is no potable water available at the site, so come prepared with your own.Typical season of use is mid-May through late September or early October.
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