Slate Creek (Hoodoo) Hot Springs

General Description: Super hot water Flows through pvc pipes into a soaking box next to Slate Creek
General Location: East of Stanely near the old Hoodoo Mine
Pool Type: Wooden Soaking Box and a seasonal Sand and Gravel Pool
Pool Temps: Extremely Hot (106° - 110° F)
(Click to enlarge.)
Accessibility: Late spring to late fall, because of snowy winters on an unmaintained dirt road
Restrictions: No camping at the springs
Elevation: 7000 feet.
Distance from road: 0.25 mile.
Map Reference: Sawtooth National Forest Map, or Robinson Bar and Livingston Creek ID USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle

Videos

The Hot Spring:

  After years of dis-repair and a flood on the Slate River a 6-foot diameter wooden box still remains.  In the past you could drive directly next to the spring and there was a funky bath house covering the soaking box.  Other years the spring was behind a gate put up by the now closed Hoodoo Mine.  The bath house collapsed in the late 90's and was swept down the creek in a flood in 1998 along with a large section of the access road.  Because the soaking box is reiforced with rebar and large bolders it survived the flood and is still soakable today.

  The 122 degree F source water is piped to the soaking box with a considerably large amount of flow keeping to box very hot.  The temperature is controled by a pvc pipe carying cold water from the creek.  The cold water hose is very important because without it the water is too hot and if you remove the hot water the pool will leak empty.  The 6-foot diameter wooden box is well constructed and has recessed seating on three sides.  There is a seasonal sand and gravel pools near the banks of the creek that is soakable in the late summer.

  The access road was destroyed duirng a flash flood in 1998 and therefore you have to walk the last quarter of a miles along the side of a landslide into the creek.  Above the pool you can see a large cabin structure that was part of the Hoodoo mine.  We don't know if anyone lives in the cabin but a black cat was present when we were last there.  No camping is allowed next to the spring because it is technically located on private land, but there are nice big campgrounds downstream from the spring.

 

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