Terteling Hot Springs
Private LandOpen seasons
- Access
- None documented; the parcel's current ownership is not verified and no source describes public access
- Price
- None documented; no operator
- Accommodations
- None
Plan Your Visit
Documentation record: Terteling Hot Springs has no documented pool and no verified public access information. This page records what the official geothermal registries say about the spring, and nothing beyond it.
Terteling Hot Springs is the closest inventoried hot spring to Boise in the federal record: 106 °F water rising in Stewart Gulch, in the foothills about three and a half miles north of the city.
It appears in the federal thermal springs list on the Boise North quadrangle, in the U.S. Geological Survey’s GEOTHERM file at 41 °C in Section 22, Township 4 North, Range 2 East, and in the Idaho Department of Water Resources geothermal dataset as a spring site at 105.8 °F, which is 41 °C to the decimal. The federal geographic names record carries the same feature as Terteling Springs, a named spring in Stewart Gulch, Ada County. Four registries, one spring, one section, one temperature.
Read this page as a documentation record, not as a destination guide. The spring rises in settled foothills country at the northern edge of Boise, the geographic names record says it was named for a private landowner, and no source anywhere documents a pool, a visit, or public access. Its interest is the record itself: a genuinely hot spring inside the orbit of a state capital, written down by every registry that passed through and, so far as any source shows, never opened to anybody.
Soak Stats
| Location | Stewart Gulch in the Boise foothills, Ada County, about 3.5 miles north of Boise (general area only; see the access note below) |
| Soak type | Inventoried natural hot spring. No developed pool is documented |
| Water temperature | 106 °F (41 °C) in the federal thermal springs list and USGS GEOTHERM; the IDWR dataset gives 105.8 °F, the same reading. All figures are inventory-era values from about 1980; no modern measurement exists |
| Pool | None documented. No source describes a pool, tub, or developed soaking spot at this spring |
| Public access | None documented. No source grants or describes public access to the spring itself, and the parcel’s current ownership is not verified |
| Fee | None documented; no operator and no developed recreation site |
| Facilities | None documented |
Place Information
| Address | No street address exists. The spring rises in Stewart Gulch in the Boise foothills north of Boise, in Section 22, Township 4 North, Range 2 East, as mapped on the Boise North quadrangle |
| County | Ada County |
| Land manager | Not verified. The spring surfaces in settled private foothills country, the geographic names record names a private former owner for it, and no source consulted names a current owner, a parcel, or a managing agency for the site |
Location and Access
Stewart Gulch cuts into the Boise foothills on the city’s northern edge, in the country between Hill Road and the higher foothills trails, at about 3,000 feet of elevation. The registries put the spring in Section 22, Township 4 North, Range 2 East, roughly three and a half miles north of Boise in a straight line. It is foothills-edge country that has filled in with homes, golf course and private holdings over the same decades the registries have sat unchanged, not open backcountry, and no road or trail to the spring is published anywhere.
Beyond that, this listing deliberately does not go. No published route to the spring exists, no source describes a visit, and ownership of the parcel the spring rises on is not confirmed in any source consulted. The coordinates are public record in the registries linked above, but a set of coordinates is not an invitation, and on land of unconfirmed ownership it is not permission. Anyone with a genuine reason to visit should establish land ownership and, if the land is private, get the landowner’s permission first.
Is There a Soak Here?
The honest answer is that no source describes one. No soaking guide covers this spring, no trip report or photograph of a visit exists in any source consulted, and the aggregator pages that carry its name repeat the registry rows and nothing more. At 106 °F the source water is a classic soaking temperature, which is exactly why this page is careful: a hot reading in four registries says the spring is real, and it says nothing at all about a pool, a welcome, or a way in.
Every temperature on record dates from the geothermal survey era around 1980, and whether the spring still surfaces today is not verified in any source consulted. If a landowner confirmation, a county record, or a credible field report ever surfaces, this page will be updated.
History
The name is a Boise family name. The federal geographic names record states it plainly: the springs were named for Joseph Wesley Terteling (1894-1954), a former owner of the springs. The Tertelings were a Boise building and ranching family; the family firm, J. A. Terteling and Sons, grew into one of Idaho’s major construction outfits in the 1920s and after.
The spring enters the written record the way most Idaho springs do, through the geothermal surveys, but the survey era caught this family in the act of using the heat, not just owning it: the GEOTHERM file holds three drilled wells in the same section under the name Joe Terteling (records 0025046, 0025047 and 0025048), alongside the spring’s own record.
Those wells are a separate record from the spring itself, and this page keeps them separate. A U.S. Geological Survey inventory of Boise-area thermal wells (Open-File Report 88-471) still lists two Terteling wells in Section 22 in 1988, one used for heating and one for irrigation, and in 1989 the Idaho Department of Water Resources created Water District 63-S to administer the low-temperature geothermal groundwater of the Stewart Gulch area, its order noting wells owned by J. A. Terteling among the interconnected supplies around 36th Street and Hill Road.
Greenhouse and floral operations drew on the same Stewart Gulch geothermal water under rights decreed as far back as 1930. The picture the records give is a working geothermal corner of the foothills, wells and greenhouses and water districts, with the natural spring at its head carrying the family name. One caution for anyone researching further: most results for this name are geology, not water. The Terteling Springs Formation is a Lake Idaho rock unit mapped across the Boise foothills, and a northern Ada County aquifer carries the same name; both are named for the place, and neither is this spring.
Nearby Hot Springs
The nearest full listing is Roystone Hot Springs, a soakable, bookable spring near Sweet, roughly 19 miles northwest, and the natural pairing for anyone who came looking for an actual soak near Boise. The rest of the Boise backyard set, Kirkham, Pine Flats and the Idaho City country springs, files in the same archive. More South-Central Idaho hot springs →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you soak at Terteling Hot Springs?
No source documents a pool or public access. The spring rises in Stewart Gulch on private foothills land at the northern edge of Boise, no guide or agency page covers it as a place to visit, and this listing is a documentation record, not a destination guide.
How hot is Terteling Hot Springs?
The federal thermal springs list and USGS GEOTHERM record the source at 106 °F (41 °C), and the IDWR geothermal dataset gives 105.8 °F, the same reading in decimal form. All three are inventory-era figures from about 1980, and no modern reading exists.
Where is Terteling Hot Springs?
In Stewart Gulch in the Boise foothills, Ada County, about three and a half miles north of Boise, in Section 22, Township 4 North, Range 2 East. Because access and ownership are unverified, this listing gives the general area only; the precise position sits in the public registries linked above.
Is it Terteling Hot Springs or Terteling Springs?
Both, depending on the registry. The thermal springs lists (the federal list and the IDWR dataset) say Terteling Hot Springs; the federal geographic names record says Terteling Springs. They are the same spring in Stewart Gulch, and this page covers that one feature under the thermal-registry name.
Are the Terteling geothermal wells the same as the spring?
No. The registries also hold drilled wells in the same section under the name Joe Terteling, recorded separately from the spring and used over the years for heating and irrigation. The wells' records and temperatures are their own; this page is about the natural spring, record 0025045 in the GEOTHERM file.
Is Terteling Hot Springs the Terteling Springs Formation?
No. The Terteling Springs Formation is a rock unit from ancient Lake Idaho, mapped across the Boise foothills, and an Ada County aquifer also carries the name. They share a place name with the spring in Stewart Gulch and nothing else; most web results for this name are about the geology, not the spring.
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