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.
Of the handful of thermal points the survey logged on this part of the Malheur refuge, this one needs the most walking, and it is also at a good soaking temperature on paper, a touch over a hundred degrees. It sits in Harney County about 24 miles from Hines. Access is restricted. The land is federal wildlife refuge and there is nothing on record about pools or soaking.
This one is classed as a hike, a mile and a third from the lane that serves as the nearest road. It is basin-floor desert at roughly 4,100 feet, dry, with light winter snow. The ground belongs to the Fish and Wildlife Service, managed as national wildlife refuge, which means closures and seasonal rules can apply across the whole approach.
Winter rates highest on the record. Restricted access means a call to the refuge comes before any plan. Budget for a real walk in, over a mile each way, with no campground listed in the area. No chemistry has been filed for this spring, and the temperature is a survey figure, so treat it as a single reading.
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
- 1 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the south
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 8% 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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