Thorn 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.
A tepid spring in a small park outside Franklin, in Pendleton County, West Virginia. Thorn Spring Park belongs to a nonprofit and is listed as open to the public, which makes this one of the easier thermal points in the state to stand beside. The water is room temperature. Think of it as a roadside curiosity a few minutes from town.
The spring sits about fifty feet off the road at 1,800 feet, in hills where winters bring two and a half feet of snow and the rest of the year stays damp. You park and you are there. The record tags the ground as a local park.
Open year round as far as the record shows, and winter is when the climate numbers line up best. Camping means a drive: Spruce Knob Lake is the nearest listed, nearly thirteen miles out. The water chemistry on file comes from a sample taken in 1935, long enough ago that the mineral figures are historical. No heat to speak of, so no safety concerns there.
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 Thorn Spring.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 469 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southwest
A slice through the ground from west to east, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's close to the US average of 65. It's higher than at 1% 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 Thorn Spring contains 118 mg/L total dissolved solids.
Overview The Spruce Knob Lake Campground is tucked in a beautiful hardwood forest less than a mile from Spruce Knob Lake. The campground provides a peaceful setting with easy access to boating on the lake and hiking through the mountainous region. Spruce Knob Lake Campground is comprised of 28 standard camping units, 2 double camping units, and 10 walk in camping units with fire rings, lantern posts, picnic tables and paved spurs (standard camping units). In addition, there is a developed hos...
Springs Near Thorn Spring
More Springs Around 72°F
Hike 6 waterfalls near Thorn Spring
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Thorn Spring, West Virginia.