Thermo Hot Springs
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Thermo Hot Springs is the serious one on this list. The source here, one of two Thermo entries the USGS records near Milford, comes out of the ground far too hot to touch and would scald skin on contact. It lies in Beaver County, roughly nineteen miles from town. OpenStreetMap carries the same name. Who owns the land and whether visitors are welcome are both unrecorded, which, combined with the heat, should keep anyone from treating this as a soak.
The ground is desert floor by Utah standards, about five thousand feet up and dry, with under ten inches of precipitation in a year and only a modest winter snowfall. The spring lies within a couple hundred feet of a road whose name did not make it into the record. No land unit or manager is listed.
Do not put a hand or foot in this water without testing it from a distance first; at this temperature it will burn. Winter is what the record ranks highest. December into February is when steam meets cold air. Hanging Rock Campground is the nearest camping listed, about eighteen miles out. Chemistry dates from a 1967 sample and shows fairly mineral-heavy water. Access is not recorded.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
- Setting
- Open ground
- Flat, open ground all around.
- Highest ground nearby
- 25 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the north
A slice through the ground from northwest to southeast, 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 31% 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 Thermo Hot Springs is slightly alkaline (pH 7.4) with 1490 mg/L total dissolved solids. It is notably rich in sodium (supports circulation and skin hydration), sulfate (traditionally used for skin conditions and inflammation), and chloride (natural antiseptic with skin health benefits).
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Overview Hanging Rock Campground is located just off of Highway 21 between the towns of Beaver and Minerville, UT. The campground has six campsites all located alongside the scenic Beaver River. Along with the scenery that the river provides, it also offers what many consider to be the best fising in Beaver County. Recreation The Beaver River provides opportunity for year-round fishing. The Paiute ATV Trail and Beaver Bench Mountain Bike Trail System are located just down the road in Beaver,...
Thermo Hot Springs is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully.
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