Hot Lake
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Hot Lake is a thermal site on Bureau of Land Management ground a few miles outside Oroville in Okanogan County, Washington. The record calls it a lake and gives it a hot reading, past the point where most people can sit in comfort. the access on record says open, and the land is public, managed out of the BLM's Spokane Wenatchee Field Office. Beyond that the record is quiet. No bath type is listed, and there is no fee or chemistry on file.
Big Iron Road passes within a few hundred feet, so reaching the water is a short walk from wherever you leave the car. Elevation is under two thousand feet. This is the dry side of the state. The record shows under two feet of precipitation a year, with winter snow that never approaches the Cascade totals. Open public land, carrying a designation of PUB in the land data.
The months the record favors run December through February, and with snowfall this light a winter visit is workable. Camping on record is the Lost Lake group unit, roughly twenty-one miles away. At the temperature listed the water can scald. Check it with a hand before you commit a foot. No fee is mentioned anywhere in the record.
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 Hot Lake.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 400 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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 twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 88% 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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Overview Lost Lake Group Site is located in Lost Lake Campground which is situated on the northern edge of Lost Lake on the Tonasket Ranger District of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Set beneath mixed-conifer forest and surrounded by mountains, this campground offers one group site, suitable for large family and group camping excursions as well as several non-reservable single and double sites.Recreation Lost Lake Campground offers outdoor enthusiasts the opportunity to hike, fis...
Hot Lake is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water runs hot, so extra hydration is key.
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