Every spring in this collection sits on public land, most of it managed by the Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service. That means no admission fee at the gate and a wilder, more self-reliant kind of soak: you bring everything, you pack everything out, and the setting is the amenity. Conditions vary with the seasons, so follow the posted rules at each site and leave these shared places cleaner than you found them.
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.
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.
Stuart Hot Springs is a little-known wilderness soak at the edge of a grassy meadow in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, in the Lochsa Ranger District of North-Central Idaho. It is reachable only at the end of a long, arduous, multiday trip involving multiple river fords — one of the most committing hot springs approaches in the state.
Stanley Hot Springs is a chain of rock- and log-dammed pools in the ancient forest of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, more than 20 miles east of Lowell, Idaho — not to be confused with the town of Stanley in the Sawtooths. The pools sit at the end of a grueling 6-mile hike on a rough trail, and the reward is a deep, wide soaker in one of the wildest settings in North-Central Idaho.
Prospector Hot Springs is one of the least-documented soaks in Idaho: a remote hot spring deep in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, in the Lochsa Ranger District of North-Central Idaho. Almost nothing is published about the pools themselves — reaching them is a hard-to-find, multiday backcountry trip in its own right.
Sharkey Hot Springs is a BLM-managed soaking site just off Highway 93 near Baker, south of Salmon, Idaho, with two deep concrete pools, changing rooms, and picnic facilities. Visitors aged 16 and older need a Sharkey Hot Springs Pass from Recreation.gov.
Panther Hot Springs is a primitive hot springs in the Salmon-Challis National Forest near Shoup, Idaho, with small rock-walled dug-out pools and a unique rock sauna at 4,400 feet elevation. The source water can run near boiling, so test the water before entering; pool conditions change with the seasons.
