Category: South-Central

This unnamed hot spring in the Boise National Forest’s Atlanta area is a cliffside seep on the Middle Fork Boise River: hot water streaked with bright algae flows down a cliff face straight into the river, and there is no pool to soak in. The only way to enjoy it is the late-summer way — wade in at low water where the hot meets the cold, and possibly dig out a small pool of your own.

This unnamed hot spring sits right off the highway near Garden Valley, Idaho, in the Boise National Forest — the old site’s photos show a hot waterfall and an intricate system of plumbing, but no confirmed soaking pool was ever documented here. It remains one of the least-documented listings in the Garden Valley corridor: a genuine curiosity for hot springs completists rather than a known soak.

Lil Dipper Hot Springs is a small hot spring on the Middle Fork Payette River trail in the Boise National Forest north of Crouch, Idaho — you’ll pass it on the hike to Moondipper and Pine Burl. The old listing is honest about it: with low flow and only upper-90s temperatures, Lil Dipper is a landmark on the way to better soaks, not a soak itself.

Prince Albert Hot Springs is a remote two-pool soak in the Mt. Bennett Hills area north of Glenns Ferry, Idaho — and the approach is the story. The dirt road in deteriorates into a creek bed, turns to impassable muck in rain and winter, and defeated both documented attempts to reach it. Plan for the dry season and a capable 4×4.

Mountain Village Resort’s hot springs in Stanley, Idaho, have grown well beyond the single pool the old listings describe: today there are three soaking tubs along Valley Creek — the long-standing Osprey Hot Spring plus two newer private tubs, Sandhill Crane and Bluebird — all with astounding views of the Sawtooth Mountains, and all soaked by reservation only.

Russian John Warm Springs is a shallow warm spring north of Ketchum in the Sawtooth National Forest — and “warm” is the honest word for it. Warm water percolates up through the sandy bottom of a mortar-reinforced rock pool, making it a pleasant summer soak and foot-warmer with a view, rather than a hot winter destination.

Frenchman’s Bend Hot Springs is a popular set of wide, shallow pools on both sides of a creek in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Ketchum/Smoky Mountains area. The water is clear, the setting is classic Wood River country — and the rules matter here: this spring is day-use only, with a posted nighttime closure in effect, and no camping at the springs.

Worswick Hot Springs spreads hot water all over a hillside in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Fairfield/Smoky Mountains area: a variety of log- and rock-dammed pools — including a big log-dammed pool on the hill and a culvert pool below the road — with temperatures that vary by pool and by season. Come late in the season and take your pick.

Skillern Hot Springs is one of the finest backcountry soaks in the Smoky Mountains: a solid rock-walled, waterfall-fed pool with a log dam, reached by a roughly 2-hour hike in the Sawtooth National Forest in the Fairfield/Featherville area. Crystal-clear water at 100–106°F, a trailhead campground, and seasonal riverside pools below make it worth every step.

Preis Hot Springs is a tiny roadside soak in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Fairfield/Smoky Mountains area: a small sunken wooden box, just a few feet from a seasonally busy forest road, holding clear 102°F water. It barely fits two people — nice and snug — and that’s most of its charm.