Double J&D Historic Hot Spring Ranch
OpenOpen seasons
- Access
- Private commercial rental; registered overnight guests only, one couple at a time, booked through Airbnb or Vrbo. Paved highway access on the Banks-Lowman Road east of Garden Valley; no drop in or day use.
- Price
- Overnight rental only; nightly rate is set on Airbnb and Vrbo and varies by date (no operator published rate card). No day use in the operator's current materials, November 2026.
- Accommodations
- On site two room bungalow for two adults (the rental itself); other lodging in Crouch and Garden Valley.
Plan Your Visit
Double J&D Historic Hot Spring Ranch: A One Couple Retreat on the South Fork of the Payette
Double J&D Historic Hot Spring Ranch is a private vacation rental on the south bank of the South Fork of the Payette River in Garden Valley, Boise County, about an hour north of Boise along the Banks to Lowman Scenic Byway. It is not a resort in the walk in sense: the ranch rents to one couple at a time, adults only, and the staying couple has the place to itself. The stay is a two room bungalow on 7 wooded acres, and the point of the place is the water: a private natural hot spring pool, kept between 101 and 104 °F, open to guests around the clock, with no shared spaces anywhere on the property. Hosts Jamie and Dan live on site and take no other guests while a couple is booked.
The ranch is a heritage property. The operator’s own site dates it to 1898, and its rental listing describes the property and structures as homesteaded that year, with the quirks of an old homestead intact: low doorways, a private bathroom in its own small building a short walk from the bungalow, and ground that has been lived on for well over a century. Jamie and Dan opened the ranch to guests in 2021, and the rental has built an unusual record since: the operator’s Airbnb listing, read November 14, 2026, stands at a perfect 5.0 rating across 416 reviews.
The spring itself is in the federal geothermal records under a different name. USGS GEOTHERM carries it as Goller Hot Springs (records 0001560 and 0025156), in Section 6, Township 8 North, Range 5 East, at 51 °C, and the Idaho Department of Water Resources dataset carries the same spring at 44.053, -115.908 with a stored temperature of 123.8 °F: “Five spring vents; several seeps; heats house and pool.” Goller is the name of the lane the ranch sits on. This spring is a separate vent from the Campground Hot Springs pools directly across the river, which carry their own registry records and their own listing on this site; the state dataset keeps the two springs in two records about 125 meters apart. The NOAA thermal springs list carries no row for the Goller spring, which is why it does not appear on this site’s USGS GPS coordinates page.
Soak Stats
| Location | 7 Goller Ln, Garden Valley, ID 83622, Boise County, on the south bank of the South Fork of the Payette River |
| Soak type | Private natural hot spring pool for the staying couple, plus a seasonal garden soaker tub and a geothermal shower |
| Water temperature | Source 123.8 °F (51 °C) per USGS GEOTHERM and the IDWR dataset (registry name Goller Hot Springs); pool kept between 101 and 104 °F year round per the operator |
| Hours | Overnight guests only; the pool is open to the staying couple 24 hours a day. The ranch operates year round. |
| Fee | Overnight rental only. The nightly rate is set on the booking platforms (Airbnb and Vrbo) and varies by date; the operator publishes no rate card. No day use is offered in the operator’s current materials. |
| Facilities | Two room bungalow (queen bed, futon, mini fridge, microwave, coffee maker, TV, air conditioning), private bathroom with geothermal shower, 7 acres with disc golf, river access and a private beach, propane grill and fire pit |
Place Information
| Address | 7 Goller Ln, Garden Valley, ID 83622 |
| County | Boise County |
| Phone | 208-462-6251 |
| Website | Official site |
Location and Access
The ranch sits on the south side of the South Fork of the Payette River at about 3,200 feet, east of Garden Valley and Crouch on the Banks-Lowman Road. From Boise, take Highway 55 north about 36 miles to Banks, turn right onto the Banks-Lowman Road (Highway 17), and drive about 17 miles east toward Garden Valley; the ranch is at 7 Goller Ln, on the river side of the road, directly across the river from the Campground Hot Springs pools. The whole drive is paved highway, roughly 60 miles and an hour from Boise, and any vehicle makes it in any season the highway is open. This is private land and a working rental: access is by booking, for registered guests only, and there is no drop in soaking. The nearest public soak is the one across the river, Campground Hot Springs, and the corridor east toward Lowman holds Pine Flats Hot Springs and Kirkham Hot Springs on the same road.
The Soak
The pool is the ranch’s reason to exist. Natural hot spring water rises on the property at a registry recorded 123.8 °F and reaches the private outdoor pool cooled to soaking temperature; the operator’s directory profile puts the emergence at about 125 °F and the pool itself between 101 and 104 °F, held there year round. The water is untreated: no chemicals are added, and the operator describes it as crystal clear and odor free, a description its reviews repeat often enough to count as the place’s signature. Because only one couple is ever booked, the pool is clothing optional, and it never closes: guests soak at midnight, at dawn, and in falling snow, which the winter reviews treat as the main event.
Two smaller waters round out the ground. A seasonal Fairytale Garden holds a private soaker tub below a small waterfall, open in the warm months, and the private bathroom, about 25 steps from the bungalow and 10 feet from the pool, has a geothermal hot shower, so the spring heats the wash water as well as the soak. Beyond the water, the 7 acres are part of the stay: a mountain disc golf course that doubles as a walking tour of the ground, a waterfall platform, lawn games, a creekside hammock, and river access with a private beach (the first trip to the river is guided; after that guests go on their own; no fishing from the ranch’s stretch, though good holes are a short walk away). The hosts’ horse, Legs, is the ranch mascot.
Fees, Hours & Reservations
The ranch is an overnight rental, full stop: in the operator’s current materials there is no day use, no walk in soaking, and no second party on the ground. Bookings run through Airbnb and Vrbo, and the nightly rate is set there and varies by date and season; the operator publishes no rate card, so read the rate on the platform before booking. The rental is adults only, including infants, with a two person maximum. Smoking, pets, unregistered guests and open carry firearms are all prohibited. The pool is open to the staying couple 24 hours a day, check in and stay details are handled on the booking platforms and in the operator’s welcome guide, and the ranch operates in every season: its own site walks through winter stays, snowshoeing and cross country skiing from the bungalow door, alongside the summer river season. Questions before booking go to the hosts at 208-462-6251 or through the ranch site.
History
Garden Valley exists because of other people’s gold. When prospectors found gold in the Boise Basin in 1862, on the far side of the mountains south of the river, a second wave of settlers saw the real opportunity: feeding the camps. Boise County’s published history of the valley names men like Thomas Scanlon, Patrick Glennon and Donald McBride, who settled the fertile river terraces of the South Fork to raise food for the basin, and the valley has been a place of small farms and homesteads along the river ever since. The hot springs strung along this corridor, at the campground, at Pine Flats, at Kirkham, were part of that settled river bottom from early on.
By the operator’s account, this property joined that pattern in 1898, homesteaded in the valley’s first farming generation. The date is the operator’s own (its site reads “Established in 1898,” and its rental listing calls the structures “historically old (homesteaded in 1898)”), and no earlier document for the place was read for this listing; what the written record does hold is the spring. When the federal geothermal surveys catalogued Idaho’s hot water in the early 1980s, they recorded this one as Goller Hot Spring, 51 °C, in Section 6 of Township 8 North, Range 5 East, and the state dataset’s July 1982 entry is a small biography of a working homestead spring: five spring vents, several seeps, a temperature of 123.8 °F, and a use that reads simply “heats house and pool.” The spring was heating a house and filling a pool on this ground more than forty years ago, which makes the modern rental less an invention than a change of guests.
The rental era began in 2021, when Jamie and Dan began, in their own words, “sharing this magical place.” The record since is measurable: over 400 five star reviews by the operator’s count, and a 5.0 rating across 416 Airbnb reviews at this listing’s research date, against a two person, no shared spaces promise the reviews consistently say is kept. There is one more thread, and it runs through this site: Dan, as Daniel Claar, contributed hot springs articles to the old IdahoHotSprings.com, including “Hot Spring Break: Road Trippin’ Idaho Style,” a winter soak road trip from Boise to Stanley written with Jamie that still runs in this site’s guides section. The ranch’s hosts were writing about Idaho hot springs for this site’s readers long before their own spring had a listing in it.
Nearby Hot Springs
- Campground Hot Springs (directly across the river; a public Forest Service soak, and a different spring from this one)
- Pine Flats Hot Springs (up the Banks-Lowman Road toward Lowman)
- Kirkham Hot Springs (farther up the same road)
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you soak at Double J&D Hot Spring Ranch without staying overnight?
No. In the operator's current materials the ranch is an overnight rental for one couple at a time, with no day use and no unregistered visitors. The soak belongs to the couple who has booked the bungalow.
How hot is the water at Double J&D?
The spring's source temperature is 123.8 °F (51 °C) in the federal geothermal records, where the spring is registered as Goller Hot Springs. The water you soak in is cooler by design: the operator keeps the private pool between 101 and 104 °F year round, untreated and chemical free.
How many guests can stay, and what are the rules?
Two adults maximum, one couple at a time. The ranch is adults only (including infants), with no smoking, no pets and no unregistered guests. The hosts live on site, but no space is shared.
Where is Double J&D Historic Hot Spring Ranch?
At 7 Goller Ln, Garden Valley, ID 83622, in Boise County, on the south bank of the South Fork of the Payette River along the Banks-Lowman Road, about an hour north of Boise. It sits directly across the river from Campground Hot Springs.
What do guests stay in?
A two room historic bungalow with a queen bed, a living room futon, a mini fridge, a microwave, a coffee maker, a flat screen TV and air conditioning. The private bathroom is in its own building about 25 steps away, 10 feet from the pool, with a geothermal hot shower. The grounds run to 7 acres with a disc golf course, river access and a private beach.
Is this the same spring as Campground Hot Springs?
No. They are neighbouring vents in one small spring cluster, on opposite banks of the river, and the records keep them apart: this spring is registered as Goller Hot Springs (five vents, recorded heating a house and a pool in 1982), while the campground spring carries its own record and its own listing on this site.
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