The United States has at least 155,017 natural springs and spring-fed water bodies mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey, plus 1,661 hot and thermal springs documented by NOAA. Of all those springs, only about 16% have an official name on file. The rest are anonymous points on a federal hydrography map — tiny seeps and freshets that locals know but the gazetteer doesn’t.
The interactive map below combines two authoritative federal datasets: USGS 3DHP HydroLocation (cold springs and spring-discharge outlets) and the NOAA NGDC Thermal Springs of the United States (hot springs and geothermal features). Zoom into any part of the country, search a spring or place name, or use “Near me” to find what’s closest to you.
Which states have the most springs?
Springs are not evenly distributed. The top 10 states are all in the West, where Basin and Range groundwater, glaciated valleys, and volcanic geology together create the conditions for surface water to emerge from the rock. Oregon alone has more mapped springs than the entire eastern seaboard combined.
| Rank | State | Mapped springs | Named | % named | Hot springs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oregon | 30,091 | 4,126 | 14% | 126 |
| 2 | Nevada | 22,762 | 3,242 | 14% | 312 |
| 3 | California | 21,385 | 2,574 | 12% | 304 |
| 4 | Idaho | 12,763 | 1,502 | 12% | 232 |
| 5 | Utah | 10,794 | 2,201 | 20% | 116 |
| 6 | Montana | 8,933 | 1,058 | 12% | 61 |
| 7 | Arizona | 8,728 | 3,487 | 40% | 60 |
| 8 | Wyoming | 6,725 | 804 | 12% | 132 |
| 9 | New Mexico | 5,438 | 1,450 | 27% | 77 |
| 10 | Colorado | 5,429 | 564 | 10% | 47 |
The named-spring share varies wildly by state. Arizona has named 40% of its springs — the highest rate of any state with more than 1,000 springs — while Alaska has named just 0.2% (7 named springs out of 3,133). That gap reflects how much field-mapping work has been done, not how many springs actually exist on the ground.
Where are America’s hot springs?
NOAA’s thermal springs catalog lists 1,661 hot and warm springs in the United States. They are even more lopsided than cold springs — 23 states have at least one hot spring, and 28 states have none at all. The entire Midwest from North Dakota down to Louisiana, and the entire Northeast from Maine to West Virginia, sit on geology too old and too stable to push warm water to the surface.
| Rank | State | Hot springs | Hottest recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | 312 | 210°F |
| 2 | California | 304 | 214°F |
| 3 | Idaho | 232 | 203°F |
| 4 | Wyoming | 132 | 205°F |
| 5 | Oregon | 126 | 207°F |
| 6 | Utah | 116 | 187°F |
| 7 | Alaska | 108 | 310°F |
| 8 | New Mexico | 77 | 189°F |
| 9 | Montana | 61 | 181°F |
| 10 | Arizona | 60 | 180°F |
Nevada’s 312 hot springs make it America’s undisputed thermal capital. The state’s Basin and Range geology forces deep groundwater up along fault lines — even tiny towns like Gerlach and Beowawe sit next to boiling springs. California, Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon round out a clear Western geothermal corridor that runs roughly from Yellowstone southwest to the Sierra Nevada.
The 12 hottest natural springs in the United States
The hottest features in the dataset are mostly volcanic fumaroles — superheated steam vents on active volcanoes, not bathing pools. The hottest are on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and Washington’s Mount Baker. The hottest “soakable” hot springs cap out around 210°F at the source — far too hot to enter directly, but cooled by mixing or piping at the surface for bathhouses.
| Spring | State | Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Makushin Volcano Fumaroles | AK | 310°F (154°C) |
| Sherman Crater Fumaroles | WA | 266°F (130°C) |
| Fumaroles On Kanaga Island | AK | 219°F (104°C) |
| Hot Springs Near Geyser Bight | AK | 216°F (102°C) |
| The Geysers | CA | 214°F (101°C) |
| Thermal Springs In Okmok Caldera | AK | 212°F (100°C) |
| Hot Springs On Great Sitkin Island | AK | 210°F (99°C) |
| Little Geysers | CA | 210°F (99°C) |
| (Soda Lake Area) | NV | 210°F (99°C) |
| Bradys Hot Springs | NV | 209°F (98°C) |
| Hot Springs (Surprise Valley) | CA | 208°F (98°C) |
| Beowawe Hot Springs (The Geysers) | NV | 208°F (98°C) |
How many hot springs can you actually soak in?
“Hot spring” covers a huge range of temperatures. NOAA classifies anything above ambient groundwater as thermal, which means a 75°F spring in West Virginia and a 250°F fumarole in Alaska are both in the same dataset. For bathers, the practical comfort zone is roughly 101°F to 110°F — warm enough to feel hot, not so hot you can’t stay in. Only 116 of America’s 1,661 thermal springs fall naturally in that perfect-soak range.
| Temperature range | Count | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| Cool (≤80°F) | 390 | Cool to ambient — usually classed as “mineral” or “sulfur” springs rather than hot. |
| Warm (81-100°F) | 344 | Tepid to body-temperature — Berkeley Springs WV, Hot Springs VA-style historic spas. |
| Soakable (101-110°F) | 116 | The hot-tub sweet spot. Rare in nature. |
| Hot (111-140°F) | 305 | Too hot to enter directly; cooled for bathhouses. |
| Scalding (141-180°F) | 181 | Used for geothermal heating; bathing requires significant cooling. |
| Boiling+ (>180°F) | 144 | Near or above the boiling point at altitude. Hands-off geothermal vents. |
| Temperature unrecorded | 181 | Listed in NOAA catalog without a measured temperature. |
28 states with no hot springs at all
If you live in any of these states, the closest natural hot spring is in the next state over — or several states away:
Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota
Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio
Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin.
That doesn’t mean those states have no warm groundwater — just that NOAA’s catalog of thermal features didn’t include them. The cold-springs map for these states is often impressive: Kentucky’s 2,832 karst springs are the most of any state east of the Mississippi, Tennessee adds 2,317 more across the Appalachian and Cumberland plateaus, and Missouri’s Ozarks contribute another 1,968 — the third-largest non-Western spring concentration in the country.
Famous spring states you might overlook
A few states have small but historically famous thermal springs that don’t make the top-10 by count but still deserve attention:
- Arkansas (6 hot springs, hottest 147°F) — home to Hot Springs National Park, where 47 springs flow at 143°F — the centrepiece of America’s oldest federally protected hot-spring reserve.
- Virginia (11 hot springs, hottest 106°F) — The Homestead and Warm Springs Pools have run continuously since the 1760s. Eleven hot springs in our data, topping out at 106°F.
- West Virginia (5 hot springs, hottest 73°F) — Berkeley Springs — the first US public bathhouse, surveyed by George Washington in 1748. The water flows at a constant 72°F year-round.
- Georgia (7 hot springs, hottest 88°F) — Warm Springs, GA — the 88°F pool where President Franklin Roosevelt swam for polio rehabilitation. Seven warm springs total in the state.
- South Dakota (2 hot springs, hottest 87°F) — Hot Springs, SD and the Mammoth Site — thermal water once attracted bison, mammoths, and (much later) sanitarium guests.
- Texas (9 hot springs, hottest 117°F) — Indian Hot Springs and Ruidosa Hot Springs in the Big Bend country — the hottest tops 117°F. Boquillas Hot Springs in Big Bend National Park flows directly into the Rio Grande.
How to use the springs map
- Layer toggles — turn cold springs, hot springs, named-only, or state outlines on or off above the map.
- Search — type any spring name (e.g. “Wakulla”, “Yellowstone”, “Hot Springs”) and the map will zoom to matches. If no spring matches, it falls back to a place lookup so you can browse springs near a town or park.
- Near me — uses your browser’s location to recentre on your area, then clusters show the closest springs as you zoom in.
- Basemaps — switch to Satellite to see spring runs and surface water; Terrain to see the topography that creates them.
- Share a view — pan and zoom, then copy the URL. Coordinates and zoom are preserved in the link.
Data sources and known limitations
- Cold springs: USGS 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP), HydroLocation layer 20, feature types 7 (Spring) and 3 (Waterbody outlet). The map includes outlets because in some states — especially Florida — large karst springs are catalogued as river-source outlets rather than as “Spring” features.
- Hot springs: NOAA NGDC Thermal Springs of the United States, the canonical 50-states catalog. The dataset contains 1,661 springs and warm features with measured temperatures where available.
- Coverage is uneven: the 3DHP map is built from state-level inputs of varying age and completeness. Western states have had more aggressive USGS spring mapping; eastern states have fewer features in 3DHP than they likely have on the ground. The data shown is the federally-mapped subset, not an exhaustive list.
- Florida note: Many of Florida’s famous spring runs — Wakulla, Silver, Rainbow — are catalogued as river-headwater outlets in the underlying NHD dataset rather than as discrete “Spring” features, which is why the Florida count looks low.
