Unnamed Thermal 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.
Another of the thermal points the USGS logged on the Malheur refuge, this one about 25 miles out of Hines in Harney County. The water is soaking warm on paper, warmer than a bath, which makes it more interesting than most of its neighbors. Access, though, is restricted. Whatever the temperature, the refuge decides who goes there and when, and there is no record of a developed pool or any soaking use.
South Harney Lake Lane passes about six tenths of a mile off, and covering that gap means walking over refuge ground. The elevation is basin floor, high desert. A normal year brings something near two feet of snowfall, and the rest of the climate is dry. The Fish and Wildlife Service holds this ground and runs it as part of the national wildlife refuge.
Winter rates best on the record, December through February. Check with refuge staff before going; restricted access on a wildlife refuge is no formality. No water chemistry has been filed for this point, and no campground is listed within reach. The temperature is a survey figure and may not match what you find.
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 this spring.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 4 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
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 7% 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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this spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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