East-Central Idaho is big, dry and wide open: sagebrush valleys along Highway 93, the Salmon River, and the Salmon-Challis National Forest rising on both sides. The soaking runs from easy roadside stops like Sharkey Hot Springs, a BLM site with concrete pools south of Salmon, to the steep two-mile hike up to Goldbug’s rock-walled pools and hot waterfalls. Beyond them, wilderness springs in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness reward backpackers with true solitude, but only during a short summer and fall window. Salmon and Challis are the supply towns; carry water and fuel, and do not count on cell service out here.
Documentation record: Sullivan Hot Springs is a private homestead site with no documented pool and no public access. This page records what the official registries and the homestead record say about the spring, and nothing beyond it. Sullivan Hot Springs appears in the federal thermal springs list at 106 °F, on the Salmon River in…
Sulphur Creek Hot Spring is a documented thermal spring on Sulphur Creek, the 18-mile tributary that joins the Middle Fork of the Salmon River at Dagger Falls, deep inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. It exists in the federal record as an entry in the USGS thermal springs inventory, which plots it…
Pistol Creek Hot Springs is a documented thermal spring on Pistol Creek, a tributary of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, deep inside the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Valley County. It exists in the federal record as an entry in the USGS thermal springs inventory, which plots it at 115°F…
Trail Flat Hot Springs is a small, undeveloped soak at the edge of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, at Trail Flat camp in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. It is the first hot spring on the river below the Boundary Creek launch, and for a lot of Middle Fork trips…
Sheepeater Hot Springs is a cluster of undeveloped soaking pools on a high terrace above the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, at river mile 13 in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. It is the second hot spring on the river below the Boundary Creek launch, and one of the most reliable:…
Hospital Bar Hot Springs is a small, undeveloped soak at the edge of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, at river mile 52.1 in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. There is no road and no trail in: the spring sits at the upper end of the Hospital Bar camp, on the…
Challis Hot Springs is a developed, state-run soak on the Salmon River, about 8 miles east of Challis: two outdoor pools with natural gravel and river-rock bottoms, a riverside campground, and a soaking history that runs back to 1880. If the name is new to you, the place is not. For most of its life…
Lidy Hot Springs, near Dubois in Clark County, Idaho, is closed and not open to the public; the springs are on private property. Once a landmark desert resort called “the Oasis,” it operated before 1962 with pools, a dance hall and camping.
Sharkey Hot Springs is a BLM-managed soaking site just off Highway 93 near Baker, south of Salmon, Idaho, with two deep concrete pools, changing rooms, and picnic facilities. Visitors aged 16 and older need a Sharkey Hot Springs Pass from Recreation.gov.
Panther Hot Springs is a primitive hot springs in the Salmon-Challis National Forest near Shoup, Idaho, with small rock-walled dug-out pools and a unique rock sauna at 4,400 feet elevation. The source water can run near boiling, so test the water before entering; pool conditions change with the seasons.
Goldbug Hot Springs is a hike-in natural hot springs in the Salmon-Challis National Forest south of Salmon, Idaho, reached by a roughly 2-mile trail with a steep final half-mile. Rock-walled pools and hot waterfalls line the creek at about 6,200 feet elevation.
Warm Springs Creek Hot Springs is a barely used wilderness hot spring, the Sitz Bath, in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, reached by a difficult hike. Access roads are open only from about July to October, spring runoff destroys the lower pools, and the trip is best done as an overnighter with primitive camping nearby.
Shower Bath Hot Springs is a remote wilderness hot springs in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, reached by a trail that follows the Narrows of Warm Springs Creek. Its rock-walled pools vary in size and temperature, and access roads are open only about July to October, leaving a short 2–3 month visiting window each year.
