Has anybody flown into Bruce Meadows and then hiked to the Bear valley Hot Springs? If so can you describe the hike, is it a basic trail, well marked, terrain changes, river crossings, etc. How long did it take you to make the hike?

The Fly Idaho book says it is an easy nine mile hike.
Of course "easy" is a subjective term.
Nine miles would kill me these days.

Might try a USGS map, or one of the DVD programs.
Maybe patience will get you a better answer than I can provide

Chris C

I have been to Bruce Meadows but haven't hiked to the hot springs. On this map it looks like 5 miles one way from the airstrip with hardly any elevation change along the route. The contour lines are 50 meter intervals. You cross Bear Valley Cr. once so if still lots of snow melting in the high country it could be high. I would go for it.

Edit:I finally figured out how to post the map above.

I'd like to order that quadrangle map from the USFS, which one is that?

National Geographics Topo will print about the same thing for any part of a state. Not the red numbers, and the trails are a black dashed line instead of red, but if you buy their paper too, it won't smear or run, even on an inkjet if it should get wet. About $100 per state. The REI store will even print the area you want for a fee on that paper. Tough to rip too.

Bonanza Man wrote:I'd like to order that quadrangle map from the USFS, which one is that?

The map in my post above is a photo I took of another map. It is "Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness South Half", US Forest Service Intermountain region, Ogden Utah. The scale on this map is 1"= 1.5783 miles. It is about 2 feet X 3 feet with map on both sides. It covers a huge area. I prefer these over quads especiall for flying. I got it from the Lowman ranger district, phone 208-259-3361.

The area shown above is on two seven and one half minute quads. The Air strip as well as most shown is on the Blue Bunch Mountain quad. The spring is on the very west edge of the "Cape Horn Lakes" quad...I think.

This is all on the Boise National Forest. I don't think the hot spring is labeled as such on any maps. On mine you can see it is just a little blue circle indicating a spring.