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.
Body heat is about what this unnamed thermal point manages, a shade over ninety degrees on the record. It lies on Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, two dozen miles from Hines. Access is marked restricted. The refuge holds the land and sets the rules, so permission comes from the refuge first.
A bit over half a mile separates the spring from South Harney Lake Lane, the nearest road on record. The walk crosses federal refuge ground managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. This is high desert basin country around 4,100 feet. Snow is light most winters and the annual rainfall is scant.
December through February are the months that rate best. Before anything else, ask the refuge about access, which is listed as restricted. A water sample in 2018 came back neutral, and that is the whole of the chemistry. This close to body temperature, the water will feel mild at best. No camping is listed nearby.
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
- 9 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
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 5% 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 This spring is neutral (pH 7.2).