Buckhorn Hot Springs is a hard-to-find soak on Buckhorn Creek in the Payette National Forest, in the Warm Lake/Yellow Pine area. A gradually inclined 5-mile hike — gaining more than 1,000 feet on an overgrown old forest road — keeps use low at a meadow- and forest-edged spring with a rock-walled pool and a stand-up hot shower.
Category: West-Central
Nearby Cities: Cascade, Council, McCall, Riggins
Public Lands: Boise and Payette National Forests
Secesh Hot Springs
Secesh Hot Springs is a chain of rock pools perched high above the Secesh River in the Payette National Forest, in the Warren area northeast of McCall. Reaching them takes a river ford followed by a quarter-mile, near-vertical scramble — and the payoff is some of the softest hot springs water in Idaho, in a place that sees very little use.
White Licks Hot Springs
White Licks Hot Springs is one of Idaho’s most unusual soaks: two small shacks in the Payette National Forest between Council and Donnelly, each sheltering a single cement pool with its own pair of hot and warm intake pipes — plug and unplug the pipes to dial in your own soaking temperature.
Council Mountain Hot Springs
Council Mountain Hot Springs — also known as Laurel Hot Springs — is a rock-walled soak in the Payette National Forest near Council, Idaho, reached by a forest trail climbing the side of Council Mountain. The single pool runs about 96–98°F, warming as the season progresses, and sees only moderate use.
Bernard Warm Springs
Bernard Warm Springs — also known as Smalley — is a long-forgotten warm spring in the Boise National Forest near Cascade, Idaho. Once a full-fledged hot springs resort, its seldom-used pool now sits inside the remnants of the old resort’s foundation, soaking at a mild 98°F.
Zims Hot Springs
Zims Hot Springs is a Nez Perce Tribe-operated hot springs a few miles outside New Meadows, Idaho, with outdoor mineral pools fed by an artesian well — a small pool at 100–105°F and a large pool at 90–100°F. Day use is $13 for adults, $8 for children, and $10 for seniors, with RV parking and camping on site.
Gold Fork Hot Springs
Gold Fork Hot Springs is a commercial hot springs near Donnelly, Idaho, with 6 natural mineral pools — including a soft white-sand-bottom pool — fed by alkaline, lithium-rich water. Admission is $15 per person (cash only, 2-hour maximum stay); open year-round, closed Tuesdays.