Hot springs in Oregon

Oregon's thermal springs come from two geologic settings. Along the Cascade Range, a volcanic arc formed as the Juan de Fuca plate slides beneath North America, groundwater warmed in young volcanic rock emerges in the deep river canyons of the west slope, including the Clackamas, McKenzie and North Umpqua drainages. Newberry Volcano, east of the main crest, holds hot springs on the shore of Paulina Lake. In southeast Oregon, Basin and Range faulting around Steens Mountain and the Alvord basin lets water circulate deep along fault zones before rising to the surface. The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries maps both regions.

Most of the springs on the west slope are on national forest land: the Mount Hood, Willamette and Umpqua national forests, where several sites are Forest Service fee areas with day-use rules. Newberry National Volcanic Monument is part of the Deschutes National Forest. In the southeast, the Bureau of Land Management's Burns and Vale districts manage the desert basins, though a number of springs there sit on private ranch land.

Winter shapes access more than distance does. The Umpqua National Forest gates Forest Road 3401 to Umpqua Hot Springs when winter storms arrive, which adds a 2.5-mile walk, ski or snowshoe trip; the most recent closure began after a January 2026 storm and was rescinded on March 20, 2026. The Oregon Department of Transportation closes the McKenzie Pass Highway, Oregon 242, from November to mid-June, with the third Monday in June as the earliest opening date. Deschutes County closes Paulina Lake Road into the Newberry caldera and the Cascade Lakes Highway west of Mount Bachelor each winter, with a goal of reopening before Memorial Day.