Granite Mountain Hot Springs
The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Can you soak at Granite Mountain Hot Springs?
Only once it cools. The water leaves the ground at 120°F, hotter than any hot tub. Reaching it takes a hike. We haven't confirmed whether it has a pool or charges a fee.
Granite Mountain Hot Springs is a hot spring in the Northwest Arctic Borough, about a hundred and ten miles from Kotzebue. The water runs hot, past comfortable soaking temperature at the source. The ground is state land, listed as tentatively approved for state ownership, and the access status is marked unknown.
A couple of miles of walking from the nearest road, at a few hundred feet elevation, in country where the yearly average temperature sits below freezing. Precipitation is light and a good share of it falls as snow. Alaska's Department of Natural Resources is the listed manager under a tentative approval.
The climate data points at midwinter, December into February, which in the Arctic means deep cold and little daylight. Hot water; test it and let it cool before getting in. Access is unknown, no fee or facilities are on record, and there is no sample date to say how current the temperature reading is.
USGS hasn't flown a detailed laser scan here yet, so this view comes from aerial photos and older elevation data.
- Setting
- Gentle slope
- The ground tilts gently up to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 87 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.