Hooper Hot 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.
Hooper Hot Springs is a hot spring inside the Ogden Bay State Wildlife Area in Weber County, about six miles from Hooper. Water at the source is hot enough to scald. Access is restricted. Put together, those two facts rule out a casual soak.
A short walk of about a tenth of a mile from the road. Valley floor, on state conservation land. Dissolved minerals run high. Snowfall is around three feet a winter; precipitation is moderate for northern Utah.
Winter months on file. Do not enter the water at its source temperature. Restricted access means contacting the wildlife area first. Simpson Springs Campground is about seventeen miles off. The temperature reading dates to 1966, and the water chemistry comes from the same sample. Nothing on file mentions a fee or a photo.
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 Hooper Hot Springs.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 3 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
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 53% 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 Hooper Hot Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.6) with 8360 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).
Overview The campground is situated on the eastern edge of Utah's West Desert near the historic Simpson Springs station on the Pony Express National Historic Trail. Simpson Springs was the site of a significant Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the late 1930s and early 1940s, just prior to the establishment of the US Army Dugway Proving Grounds during World War II. Recreation Hiking, picnicking, OHV riding, mountian biking, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, scenic backcountry byway,...
Springs Near Hooper Hot Springs
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Slightly Alkaline Springs (pH ~7.6)
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