Boiling Springs Hot Springs

At the end of a forest road in the Boise National Forest, north of the town of Crouch, lies the historic Boiling Springs Guard Station — available for rent by reservation only. The real treat is the nearby hot springs: rock-walled pools with rock and sand bottoms fed by one of the most powerful geothermal sources in the Garden Valley backcountry.

Boiling Springs Hot Springs Pictures

Boiling Springs Season

Middle Fork Road (Forest Road 698) runs about 24 miles north from Crouch to Boiling Springs, and the road is snow-covered until late May. The Guard Station cabin opens May 22 for the 2026 season and is bookable through December; in winter, reaching it means an 11-mile snowmobile run from the Middle Fork snowmobile parking lot north of Tie Creek Campground. Summer and fall access is straightforward. That long snow-covered season is the key planning fact for Boiling Springs: the springs are a spring, summer, and fall destination, and even then the water temperature varies from pool to pool, so a quick test before settling in is worth it. Usage is moderate, and the pools sit at about 4,000 feet in the Middle Fork Payette drainage.

Boiling Springs Camping

Primitive and official campgrounds are all over the place. The Boiling Springs Guard Station cabin itself can be rented through Recreation.gov — $80 per night in peak season (late May through mid-September) and $56 per night the rest of the season. Public use of the riverside pools is permitted during cabin occupancy, but not the pools near the cabin. Two other Middle Fork soaks on the same road system are Fire Crew Hot Springs and Rocky Canyon Hot Springs.

Map

Boiling Springs Soak Stats

• Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
• Access Type: Hike
• Public Land: Boise National Forest
• Elevation: 4,000 ft
• GPS: 44.364, -115.856
• Water Temperature: Varies per pool
• General Location: N of Crouch / Middle Fork Payette River Area
• Usage Level: Moderate

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