The Sawtooth National Forest covers the Sawtooth, Smoky and Boulder mountains of south central Idaho. Its one currently tagged spring, Skillern Hot Springs, is a backcountry soak on Smoky Creek in the Smoky Mountains west of Ketchum, reached by trail and known for its row of rock walled pools beside the creek. More Sawtooth country springs will join this collection as they are verified.
Cove Creek Hot Springs is a small, undeveloped soak on the north bank of the Salmon River, about 8 miles east of Stanley below Idaho Highway 75. Hot water seeps out of the riverbed gravel and a granite outcrop into volunteer-built rock and sand pools at the water’s edge, and a designated parking lot with…
Mormon Bend Hot Springs is an undeveloped spring on the far bank of the Salmon River, about 8 miles northeast of Stanley. There is no bridge, no trail, and no developed pool: just hand-built rock and sand pools at the river’s edge, across from the Forest Service’s Mormon Bend Campground on Idaho Highway 75. Reaching…
At the end of Grandjean Road, where the gravel runs out at the edge of the Sawtooth Wilderness, Sawtooth Lodge has been soaking travelers since 1927. The lodge is a private, historic outpost on the South Fork of the Payette River: log cabins, yurts, tent meadows, an RV park, a restaurant, and a geothermal pool…
North of Ketchum on State Highway 75, Easley Hot Springs is a developed, family friendly soaking complex in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area: a full size outdoor swimming pool fed directly by the springs, two soaking tubs overlooking it, and a small general store. The complex sits on Sawtooth National Forest land and is run…
Russian John Warm Springs is a shallow warm spring north of Ketchum in the Sawtooth National Forest — and “warm” is the honest word for it. Warm water percolates up through the sandy bottom of a mortar-reinforced rock pool, making it a pleasant summer soak and foot-warmer with a view, rather than a hot winter destination.
Frenchman’s Bend Hot Springs is a popular set of wide, shallow pools on both sides of a creek in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Ketchum/Smoky Mountains area. The water is clear, the setting is classic Wood River country — and the rules matter here: this spring is day-use only, with a posted nighttime closure in effect, and no camping at the springs.
Worswick Hot Springs spreads hot water all over a hillside in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Fairfield/Smoky Mountains area: a variety of log- and rock-dammed pools — including a big log-dammed pool on the hill and a culvert pool below the road — with temperatures that vary by pool and by season. Come late in the season and take your pick.
Skillern Hot Springs is one of the finest backcountry soaks in the Smoky Mountains: a solid rock-walled, waterfall-fed pool with a log dam, reached by a roughly 2-hour hike in the Sawtooth National Forest in the Fairfield/Featherville area. Crystal-clear water at 100–106°F, a trailhead campground, and seasonal riverside pools below make it worth every step.
Preis Hot Springs is a tiny roadside soak in the Sawtooth National Forest, in the Fairfield/Smoky Mountains area: a small sunken wooden box, just a few feet from a seasonally busy forest road, holding clear 102°F water. It barely fits two people — nice and snug — and that’s most of its charm.
West Pass Hot Springs is a trio of bathtubs soaking beside West Pass Creek in the Sawtooth National Forest, near Clayton on the East Fork of the Salmon River. It’s a quirky, low-use soak — clear, lime-tinted, moderately sulfurous water in plain tubs, in a white-rock canyon that sees very few visitors.
Bowery Hot Springs is one of Idaho’s most unusual soaks: the “pool” is an old fiberglass spa set beside the East Fork of the Salmon River in the Sawtooth National Forest, near Clayton. There is no natural rock pool here — just an aging spa tub, strong sulfur water, big scenery, and (usually) nobody else around.
Willow Creek Hot Springs is a chain of algae- and silt-laden pools along Willow Creek and the Idaho Centennial Trail in the Sawtooth National Forest, just under a mile’s hike from a horse transfer camp northeast of Pine and Featherville, Idaho. It is also a comeback story: the area burned hard in a 2008 wildfire and the pools vanished for years — by June 2013 they were back, soaking a recovering, still-scorched landscape.
Lightfoot Hot Springs is a neglected, rarely visited soak about 20 miles from Featherville in the Sawtooth National Forest — and it starts with a trap for the unwary: the signed pools beside the road are a decoy. The real Lightfoot pools lie on the far side of the South Fork Boise River, reached by a dirt forest road, a pack bridge, and a short hike (or a river ford, not advised during spring runoff). What waits there, on the only documented visit, was underwhelming: stagnant, dirt-lined pools in a weed-infested area, badly in need of reconstruction.
Baumgartner Hot Springs is the Featherville area’s developed soak: a commercial-style concrete pool inside Baumgartner Campground on the South Fork Boise River, about 11 miles east of Featherville in the Sawtooth National Forest. The 101°F water is piped into a 15×20-foot concrete pool with steps, a railing, and filters — and it is drained, cleaned, and refilled every morning during the season. Usage is extreme and families pack it; the standing local advice is simple: soak early.
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.
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.
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.
