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Sheep Creek Bridge Hot Springs is a small, shallow set of rock-walled, tarp-dammed pools a short hike from one of the points where the Middle Fork Road bridges the Boise River, in the Atlanta corridor. It comes with an honest caveat: this spring has declined. The well-built pool documented in early visits was later dismantled, and the most recent accounts describe small silt- and mud-filled pools running lukewarm — a shadow of the soak it once was, though the source still flows and the setting, with river views, remains.

Phifer Warm Spring — also known as Weatherby Mill — is one of the Atlanta area’s oddities: an 86°F warm spring with no soaking pool at all. Instead, the water is piped into a stand-up shower stall and an old bathtub, making this a rinse-off stop rather than a soak — best enjoyed on a hot summer day, when the lukewarm water is a feature instead of a bug.

Pete Creek Hot Springs is built around a sight worth the trip by itself: a hot waterfall pouring into the Middle Fork Boise River in the Atlanta area. The soak — small, user-built rock pools below the falls on the far side of the river — exists only seasonally, roughly August through October when the river runs low. On documented visits outside that window there were no pools at all, just the falls and a cold river crossing, so time this one carefully.

Ninemeyer Hot Springs is a late-season-only proposition on the far side of the Middle Fork Boise River: rocky, user-built pools with sand and rock bottoms that sit submerged or unreachable for most of the year. The access window is small — fording the river is only advised at low water, usually late July through November — and on multiple documented visits the pools were only ever seen steaming from the wrong side of a swollen river.

Loftus Hot Springs is a pair of user-built rock pools along the Middle Fork Boise River Road — famous, heavily used, and with a rough recent history: the pools were destroyed by vandals in 2011 and rebuilt by local soak seekers, in reduced form, later that year. The upper pool (102°F, mortar-reinforced) and lower pool (100°F) sit right off the washboard road between Boise and Atlanta, and usage here is extreme — this is a known party spot for hunters and ATVers, kegs and all. Two cautions from the listing itself: watch for broken glass in the pools, and poison ivy grows around them.

Granite Creek Hot Springs is a seasonal riverside soak right next to the Middle Fork Road in the Atlanta area — a set of rock-walled pools with sand, gravel, and rock bottoms at the edge of the Middle Fork Boise River. Finding the right spot can be tricky: there may or may not be a pool ready depending on when you visit, and the pools that exist swirl hot and cold water together, so a good soak takes a little work.

Roaring River Hot Springs — also known as Dutch Frank — is a sprawling geothermal complex where the Roaring River meets the Middle Fork Boise River in the Boise National Forest’s Mountain Home District. Heat emanates from multiple spots along the river, and roadside rock-walled pools appear wherever soakers have dug them. It’s a prospector’s soak: there may or may not be something worthwhile ready when you arrive, but the opportunity is everywhere.

Chattanooga Hot Springs is one of the finest natural soaks in the Atlanta area: a large, shallow, waterfall-fed pool beside the Middle Fork Boise River near the town of Atlanta, Idaho. The catch is timing — depending on how strong spring runoff runs, the pool can sit submerged in the river. Come late season, when the river drops, and this 102°F soak is tough to beat. Red spider mites have been reported here, so keep gear off the rocks.

Browns Creek Hot Springs hides on the far side of the Middle Fork Boise River in the Atlanta area — and the river is the gatekeeper. A deep, cold ford that should only be attempted at low water (usually August) guards a small set of shallow seasonal pools, a roughly 30-foot hot waterfall shower, and one secret two-person rock-and-mortar soaker tucked into a nook in the rocks, the only pool out of view of the road.

Atlanta Annex 1 & 2 are two undeveloped hot springs along the road near Atlanta, Idaho, sitting between three of the best soaks in the area — Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Powerplant. Each has a large pool with enough hot water flowing to support development, but they remain unbuilt, highly visible from the road, and frankly outclassed by their neighbors.