Marten Creek Hot Springs

Marten Creek Hot Springs is one of the most remote soaks in Idaho: a little-known wilderness hot spring deep in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, in Idaho County. There is no road, no trailhead sign, and no maintained path to rely on — reaching it is a multiday backcountry undertaking, and very little about the spring is documented.

What is known is this: hot water bubbles out of the top of a rock outcrop and spills down into Marten Creek, a very seasonal tributary in the Selway River drainage. The USGS plots Marten Hot Springs on the Mink Peak 7.5-minute quadrangle, in the same wild country the Selway River Trail crosses on its roughly 50-mile run between Paradise and Race Creek. The approach involves multiple river fords, which is why mid to late summer — after runoff drops and fords become passable — is the only realistic window. Anyone attempting it needs full wilderness skills: map and compass navigation, ford judgment, bear-country food storage, and complete self-reliance.

Marten Creek Hot Springs Soak Stats

• Season: Mid to late summer (multiple river fords limit access)
• Access Type: Multiday backpack; hard-to-find, no maintained trail documented
• Public Land: Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest
• GPS: 46.006, -115.021 (USGS, Mink Peak 7.5 quad)
• Water Temperature: Not documented
• Usage Level: Extremely low

Marten Creek Camping

There are no known primitive campsites near the spring. Expect to find and make your own camp well away from the water, following full Leave No Trace wilderness practice — and expect the route-finding, not the soak, to be the main event of the trip. Because the spring’s water temperature has never been documented, there is no reliable way to know in advance whether the creek-side soaking will be hot, warm, or cooled by seasonal flow. That uncertainty is part of the deal with a spring this far off the map.

Map

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