Big Warm Springs
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Big Warm Springs is a state trust land spring in Tooele County, a dozen miles out of Grantsville, and the record marks it open. The water runs warm, well short of hot. What stands out is its salt: the 1966 sample shows a heavy load of dissolved solids, over eight thousand milligrams per liter, so expect brackish water.
The ground is state trust land in a block along Interstate 80, listed as an SRMA, a recreation management designation. You can pull over and walk a couple hundred feet. The valley floor sits a little over four thousand feet and gets real winter, twenty-some inches of snow most years, though the spring is close enough to the road that snow matters less here than at a trailhead. Lower Narrows Campground is the closest camping named, about 17 miles off.
Winter is the visiting season on record. Access is open, the pull-off is roadside, and there is no fee on file. Come knowing you will find warm salty water. The chemistry is from 1966, so conditions could have drifted since.
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 Big Warm Springs.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the south.
- Highest ground nearby
- 347 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 about 1½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 60% 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 Big Warm Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.7) with 8110 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in calcium (may support bone density and joint health), magnesium (known for muscle relaxation and stress relief), and sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration).
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Overview Upper Narrows Campground is located southwest of Grantsville, Utah, in South Willow Canyon at an elevation of 6,840 feet. Visitors enjoy exploring local trails. Recreation The multi-use Stansbury Front and Medina Flat Trails begin nearby, offering access to the rugged Deseret Peak Wilderness. Willow Creek offers rainbow and brown trout fishing. Facilities This campground has 3 single sites. This campground has vault restroom facilities. There is no water system in this campground, yo...
Big Warm Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear.
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