South-Central Idaho holds the deepest bench of hot springs in the state, stretching from the Boise National Forest and the Sawtooth Mountains down to the Snake River plain. River soaks like Kirkham, Bonneville and Pine Flats line the Payette River canyons north of Boise, backcountry pools hide along the Middle Fork of the Boise River and around Stanley and Atlanta, and developed resorts, including Miracle and Banbury near Buhl, The Springs in Idaho City and Silver Creek Plunge, make soaking easy in any season. Winter access varies sharply with elevation: low canyon pools can be reached year-round, while high forest roads close with snow until late spring.
Tenmile Hot Springs is a set of user-built rock pools in the Boise National Forest in the Lowman area, in a grassy, picturesque setting with excellent camping and hiking around it. The honest catch is in the pools themselves: the water temperature is perfect, but the pools are mucky — loaded with silt and algae — and a good soak here takes patience and elbow grease.
Sunbeam Hot Springs is a set of riverside, rock-walled pools just off Highway 75 near Sunbeam, Idaho, below the historic Sunbeam bathhouse on the Salmon River. It’s one of the most popular public soaks in the Stanley area — heavy use, extreme in summer — and one of the rare non-commercial hot springs with a restroom and changing room.
Slate Creek Hot Springs — also known as Hoodoo Hot Springs — is a sunken wooden soaking box at the old Hoodoo Mines site in the White Cloud Mountains, in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area northeast of Stanley, Idaho. A short hike at the end of a bumpy, unpaved forest road (FSR 666) reaches one of the most characterful soaks in the Stanley area: a plumbed, drainable wooden box fed by a mine-shaft source.
Sacajawea Hot Springs is a seasonal batch of rock-walled pools on the banks of the South Fork of the Payette River, north of Lowman, Idaho, near the Sawtooth Lodge and the Grandjean trailhead into the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. Well known and easy to reach in the warm months, it is a soak that depends entirely on the river: the cold water is what keeps the pool temperatures in the usable range.
Owen Cabin Hot Springs is a historic hot spring site on Loon Creek in the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness, just beyond Upper Loon Hot Springs — and, honestly, a place to visit for the history and the meadow rather than the soak. Only the outlines of the old rock-walled pools remain where the spring’s outflow meets Loon Creek.
Lunchbreak Warm Springs is a medium-sized, lukewarm — not hot — soak on the far side of the Salmon River in the White Cloud Mountains, in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area near Stanley, Idaho. A single rock-walled pool, a sandy beach, and picnic facilities make it a favorite stop for river floaters on a hot summer day.
Elkhorn Hot Springs — better known to regulars as Boat Box — is an easy-access wooden soaking box right next to Highway 75 near Stanley, Idaho, in the Sawtooth National Forest. Fill the tub, temper it with buckets of cold Salmon River water, and settle into one of the most beloved roadside dips in the Stanley area — it’s usable all year.
Dagger Creek Hot Springs is a set of three rock-walled pools above the mouth of Dagger Creek, near Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Salmon-Challis National Forest. It is a beautiful corner of Idaho — but go in with calibrated expectations: the pools are silty, and the one documented visit was swarmed by biting horse and deer flies.
Bear Valley Hot Springs is a string of stellar soaking pools of all shapes and sizes along Bear Valley Creek in the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness, northwest of Lowman in the Boise National Forest. Reaching them takes a moderate hike and a river ford — and the reward is one of the highest-rated wilderness soaks in Idaho, fed by multiple sources in a spectacular backcountry setting.
Basin Creek Campground Hot Springs is a small set of rocky, user-built pools on Basin Creek off Highway 75 east of Stanley, Idaho — with one big asterisk: the campground it is named for was wiped out by flooding in 2006 and never rebuilt. The pools remain, with heavily silted bottoms and temperatures that fluctuate from too cool to piping hot, but plan on dispersed camping elsewhere along Highway 75.