West-Central Idaho packs an unusual variety of soaks into the mountains between McCall, Cascade and Council. Historic Burgdorf soaks guests in log-sided pools north of McCall, developed favorites like Gold Fork and Zims offer easy, family-friendly soaking, and the Warm Lake area northeast of Cascade hides a whole cluster of wild forest springs, including Trail Creek and the Molly’s group. Most sit in the Boise and Payette National Forests, and many are reached by forest roads that turn snowy or muddy outside summer. Summer and early fall offer the widest access; winter trips call for checking road conditions first.
Documentation record: South Fork Plunge has no documented pool or public soak today. This page records what the official geothermal registries and the 1970s agency record say about the spring, and nothing beyond it. South Fork Plunge appears in the federal thermal springs list at 129 °F (54 °C), on the South Fork Salmon River…
Most Idaho hot springs ask you to share. This one asks you to book the whole place. On Goose Creek between McCall and New Meadows, the Tibbs Family Mountain Retreat is a 10 acre off-grid property where two natural hot springs feed two private pools in the trees above the creek. There is no public…
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.
White Licks Hot Springs is one of Idaho’s most unusual soaks: two small shacks in the Payette National Forest between Council and Donnelly, each sheltering a single cement pool with its own pair of hot and warm intake pipes — plug and unplug the pipes to dial in your own soaking temperature.
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.
Zims Hot Springs is a Nez Perce Tribe-operated hot springs a few miles outside New Meadows, Idaho, with outdoor mineral pools fed by an artesian well — a small pool at 100–105°F and a large pool at 90–100°F. Day use is $13 for adults, $8 for children, and $10 for seniors, with RV parking and camping on site.
Gold Fork Hot Springs is a commercial hot springs near Donnelly, Idaho, with 6 natural mineral pools — including a soft white-sand-bottom pool — fed by alkaline, lithium-rich water. Admission is $15 per person (cash only, 2-hour maximum stay); open year-round, closed Tuesdays.
