River Group
The second River Group point on this site, a thermal spring in Yellowstone's Gallatin County with the hotter temperature of the pair on record, a few degrees over boiling. A short walk, around a third of a mile, from the nearest road. West Yellowstone is the nearest town listed. Open park land. The record links it to Azure Spring in the Lower Geyser Basin.
The road is unnamed on file, but the distance is small, three tenths of a mile. Elevation a little under 7,200 feet. Snow on record runs around twelve feet, with the annual average temperature in the mid thirties. Park Service ground. Nothing else about the terrain is on record.
Above boiling. Do not approach the water. Winter months are the ones the record rates highest, and with twelve feet of snow that means skiing in. Big Springs group area in Island Park is the nearest campground on record, about twenty-one miles. No fee listed. Check the park for current access to this basin.
Wikipedia's entry for Azure Spring, which the record ties to this point, describes a hot spring in the Lower Geyser Basin of Yellowstone, with a water temperature of 174 degrees and Pocket Basin Geyser close by. The USGS also holds a site record here.
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 River Group.
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the southeast.
- Highest ground nearby
- 58 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
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.
Landsat's thermal camera passed over on a clear winter day, February 21, 2020. This spring's heat shows up from about 440 miles up. The brightest yellow marks the warmest ground, roughly 21°F warmer than the land around it.
Drag to compare. The view is about 2½ miles across, and each thermal pixel covers roughly 300 feet of ground, so individual pools blur into one warm patch.
Thermal: Landsat 8/9 surface temperature, USGS (public domain), via Microsoft Planetary Computer. Aerial: USGS The National Map. More springs seen from space.
That's about 2½ times the US average of 65. It's higher than at 94% 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 Big Springs Group Area is located 22 miles south of West Yellowstone, Montana in beautiful Island Park, Idaho at an approximate elevation of 6,300 feet. Visitors love Island Park for its world-class fishing and outstanding scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities.Recreation Big Springs is the headwaters of Henry's Fork and is one of the largest springs in the country. Henry's Fork is considered one of the best fly-fishing streams in the nation. Fishermen cast for rainbow and brook...
River Group sits at 7,192 feet above sea level, way above the mile-high mark. You may not feel the altitude strongly, but hot water still dehydrates you faster at elevation. UV is about 29% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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River Group is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
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