Fall is the connoisseur’s season for Idaho hot springs: crisp air, golden hillsides, cold rivers and far fewer people at the popular pools. This collection gathers the springs tagged for fall soaking, when steam rises hardest off the water and the backcountry turns gold. Nights turn cold fast and conditions change with the first storms, so check access before you commit to a long drive.
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.
Basin Creek Hot Springs — also known as Cove Hot Springs — is a cluster of rocky, user-built pools along the Salmon River east of Stanley, Idaho, a short hike from the Highway 75 parking area past Basin Creek Campground. It comes with an honest caveat up front: on repeated visits over the years these pools have been found semi-submerged and too cool to soak, so treat this one as a low-water gamble rather than a sure thing.
Vulcan Hot Springs is one of Idaho’s most unusual hot springs: a short hike through the Boise National Forest, in the Warm Lake area, reaches a source so strong that the US Department of Energy studied its geothermal potential for years. Its main pool was once reputedly the largest natural hot springs pool in Idaho — but a wildfire-era cave-in filled it with silt and sludge, and today, per the latest update, only one small pool remains soakable.
Trail Creek Hot Springs is a hugely popular pair of mortar-reinforced rock pools in the Boise National Forest northeast of Cascade, in the Warm Lake area. A short but steep hike from the highway pullout — across a man-made bridge over the creek — reaches two pools whose temperatures soakers fine-tune with creek water and a valved PVC feed. Expect company: usage here is extreme.
Teapot Hot Springs is a cluster of five to seven seasonal pools at the base of Teapot Mountain, wedged between the South Fork Salmon River and the forest road in the Warm Lake/Yellow Pine area. You’ll smell it before you see it — the sulfur odor is strong enough to notice while driving by — and only one pool is genuinely soakable, at about 107°F.
Penny Hot Springs is a small cluster of three springs in the Boise National Forest’s Warm Lake/Yellow Pine area. The main event is Penny #1 — “New Penny” — a rock- and sand-walled pool fed by a source marked by copper-colored algae, with two smaller siblings nearby: a one-person soaker downstream and Twopenny across the river.
Molly’s Tubs Hot Springs is a creekside rock pool in the Boise National Forest’s Warm Lake area — and despite the name, the tubs themselves are history. After years of overuse and abuse, the Forest Service dismantled and removed them; in their place are two shallow, seasonal natural pools where the tubs once sat.
Molly’s Toe is a small, hot spring in the Boise National Forest northeast of Cascade, in the Warm Lake area and part of the Molly’s hot springs cluster. Keep expectations calibrated: with a partially collapsed rock wall and a light flow, this one is a foot soak at best — a curiosity on a Molly’s-area springs tour rather than a destination soak.
Molly’s Hot Springs is a log-dam and rock-bordered pool in the Boise National Forest’s Warm Lake area, a quarter-mile from the forest road — the best-known soak of the Molly’s cluster, close enough to the road to stay popular but far enough to feel like a real find. Its temperature is adjustable via a hose-and-valve system fed from the source.
Mile-16 Hot Springs — better known to regulars as Fire Crew (and sometimes Sugah) — is a single rock-mortared pool beside the South Fork Salmon River in the Boise National Forest, northeast of Cascade in the Warm Lake/Yellow Pine area. Not to be confused with the unrelated Fire Crew Hot Springs near Crouch: this one’s nickname comes from the Krassel workstation fire crew that built the soak in 1980–81, and “Mile-16” dates from when the road was unpaved and the spring sat exactly 16 miles down it.
By Golly Molly Hot Springs — also known as Molly’s Trolley — is a pair of well-built rock pools in the Boise National Forest northeast of Cascade, Idaho, in the Warm Lake area and part of the greater Molly’s hot springs cluster. It comes with an honest caveat: despite the solid construction, there has historically been no actual soak here.
Burgdorf Hot Springs is a historic, rustic hot springs resort and ghost town on private land surrounded by the Payette National Forest, about 30 miles north of McCall, Idaho. Founded in the 1870s, Burgdorf soaks visitors in three historic log-sided pools fed by two ~113°F sources — and today it runs reservation-only, booked online in advance.
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.
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.
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 — 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.
Weir Creek Hot Springs is a crystal-clear forest soak in the Clearwater National Forest near Lolo, Montana, reached by a short but steep hike from the Highway 12 corridor. Its enlarged main pool runs 105–108°F and holds 8–10 soakers, making it one of the most popular wilderness soaks in North-Central Idaho — expect company, and pack out more than you pack in.
