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.
OpenStreetMap knows this one as Three Forks Hot Spring; the survey record leaves it unnamed. It is a warm spring on BLM ground in Owyhee County, thirty-one miles from Murphy, with a recorded temperature in the mid nineties, warm enough to sit in without being hot. Access is open. Getting there takes a hike of about a mile and a half from Skull Creek Road.
Skull Creek Road is where you leave the car. From there it's a mile and six tenths of walking. The ground belongs to the Bureau of Land Management, Vale Malheur Field Office. Elevation is a hair under four thousand feet, high desert and dry. Snow in a normal winter runs about two and a half feet. Camping on record is North Fork Campground, roughly eleven miles off.
Winter carries the best rating, December through February, though snow will be a factor in the approach on a hike this long. Access is open, no fee listed. Camp at North Fork, eleven miles out. No water chemistry has been filed. Mid-nineties water feels warm in cold weather and mild in summer heat.
The OpenStreetMap name, Three Forks Hot Spring, is the only name attached to this spring anywhere on file, and the USGS lists it as a numbered thermal site.
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
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the northeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 449 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northeast
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, 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 19% 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.
Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
A small popular semi-developed site offers camping and picnicking in the scenic beauty of the North Fork of the Owyhee River Canyon, much of which was designated Wilderness in March 2009. There is no potable water at this site.
this spring is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Springs Near This Spring
More Springs Around 95°F
Hike 2 waterfalls near this spring
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near this spring, Oregon.