31 Clothing-Optional Hot Springs Where You Can Soak and Camp

I have soaked at clothing-optional hot springs, and the thing nobody tells you beforehand is how ordinary it feels after the first two minutes. Steam, cold air, a mountain, and a few people who are there for exactly the same reason you are.

Here is the practical part. The best clothing-optional hot springs in the US are split between private resorts, where the pools are clothing-optional by policy and you can camp on the property for a fee, and springs on public land, where nudity is tolerated, and you camp at the nearest Forest Service campground. The resorts cost $20 to $87 a night per person on top of a soak fee; the wild springs cost $0 to $12. All of the places below take a tent, most take a van, and about half take a real RV.

Rules shared by every spring here: nudity is for the water and the deck, not the parking lot or the road; no cameras; sit on your towel; keep your head out of wild pools (the amoeba warnings are real); and leave the spring cleaner than you found it. If you want the version of this with a pool, a clubhouse and a campground, that is our guide to nude campgrounds across the US.

Quick list: clothing-optional hot springs where you can camp

• Valley View Hot Springs, Moffat, Colorado (tents, vans and RVs under 30 feet on site)
• Orvis Hot Springs, Ridgway, Colorado (tents, vans and RVs under 30 feet on site)
• Strawberry Park Hot Springs, Steamboat Springs, Colorado (tent sites and cabins; clothing-optional after dark; no RVs)
• Desert Reef Hot Spring, Florence, Colorado (vans and truck campers only)
• Faywood Hot Springs, Faywood, New Mexico (tents and full-hookup RV sites)
• Riverbend Hot Springs, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (full-hookup RV sites; private pools only)
• San Antonio Hot Springs, Jemez Springs, New Mexico (free wild spring; Forest Service campground nearby)
• Sierra Hot Springs, Sierraville, California (tents, cars and RVs on site)
• Harbin Hot Springs, Middletown, California (tents, car camping and RVs under 24 feet)
• Orr Hot Springs, Ukiah, California (tent sites and one van spot)
• Wilbur Hot Springs, Williams, California (walk-in tent platforms, April to October)
• Tecopa Hot Springs Campground, Tecopa, California (200-plus RV and camping spaces; nude by law, men’s and women’s bathhouses)
• Saline Valley Warm Springs, Death Valley National Park, California (free primitive camping; four-wheel drive)
• Terwilliger (Cougar) Hot Springs, Blue River, Oregon (Forest Service campground nearby)
• Umpqua Hot Springs, Toketee, Oregon (Forest Service campground nearby)
• Breitenbush Hot Springs, Detroit, Oregon (camping on the property, meals included; Forest Service campground nearby for bigger rigs)
• Goldmyer Hot Springs, North Bend, Washington (hike-in campsites; permit)
• Conundrum Hot Springs, Aspen, Colorado (backcountry permit camping)
• Jerry Johnson Hot Springs, Lolo Pass, Idaho (free wild spring; Forest Service campground nearby)
• The Long Valley springs near Mammoth Lakes (Wild Willy’s, Hilltop, Shepherd, Rock Tub, Crab Cooker), California (BLM dispersed camping nearby)
• Buckeye Hot Springs, Bridgeport, California (Forest Service campground nearby)
• Benton Hot Springs, Benton, California (campsites with private tubs)
• Spencer Hot Springs, Austin, Nevada (free camping at the springs)
• Soldier Meadows Hot Springs, near Gerlach, Nevada (free BLM campground and cabin)
• Fish Lake Valley Hot Well, near Dyer, Nevada (free camping at the site)
• Alvord Hot Springs, Fields, Oregon (camping on site)
• Hart Mountain Hot Springs, Plush, Oregon (free campground around the pool)
• Black Rock Hot Springs, near Taos, New Mexico (free dispersed camping above the springs)
• Olympic Hot Springs, Olympic National Park, Washington (wilderness camp by permit; long walk in)
• Skillern Hot Springs, near Fairfield, Idaho (primitive sites along the creek)
• Goldbug Hot Springs, Elk Bend, Idaho (camp beyond the 500-foot no-camping zone)

Colorado

Valley View Hot Springs (Orient Land Trust)

• Moffat, Colorado, in the San Luis Valley at about 8,700 feet
• Day pass around $20; overnight around $40 per person plus $15 for a tent site in summer (free in the off-season) or $20 for a vehicle site; kids 15 and under free

If you only visit one spring on this list, make it Valley View. It is run by a nonprofit land trust, and its policy is the clearest in the country: clothing is always optional over the entire property, and the entire property is family-friendly. Natural rock pools step down a hillside with the whole San Luis Valley below, there is a warm swimming pond and a sauna, and the night sky is the dark kind.

Camping is on site: tent sites and vehicle sites for cars, vans and RVs, with camper size kept under 30 feet, no hookups, no campfires and no generators. Reserve ahead; non-members can book a day out, members further. The trust keeps visitor numbers low on purpose, which is why it feels the way it does. The nearest gas is 35 minutes away, so arrive with a full tank and a full fridge.

Orvis Hot Springs

• Ridgway, Colorado, below the San Juans between Ouray and Montrose
• Day soak around $35; camping around $65 per adult per night, which includes two days of soaking

Orvis is clothing-optional for adults 18 and over in the outdoor pools and sauna (swimsuits for anyone 17 and under, and in the indoor pool during the day). The big gravel-bottomed pond with Mount Sneffels behind it is the reason people drive here, and the smaller hot pots and the cold plunge fill out the afternoon.

Tent and vehicle camping is available year-round on a limited basis: RVs up to 30 feet, no electric, water or sewer, and the campground is capped at 30 people a night, so book by phone with full payment. Campers get 24-hour pool access, which means a midnight soak under snow if you time it right. Leashed dogs are allowed in the campground only.

Strawberry Park Hot Springs

• Steamboat Springs, Colorado, seven miles up a dirt road from town
• Pool entry around $30 for a two-hour reservation, cash only; tent sites and rustic cabins by phone

Strawberry Park is clothed by day and clothing-optional after dark, when the pools are also 18 and over, until they reopen the next morning. Stone-walled pools sit in a creek canyon in the aspens, and in winter the snow piles on the rocks around them. It is the most beautiful spring in Colorado and it knows it: reservations are required, open 30 days ahead, and the pool fee is cash.

Camping here means tent sites (bring a cart for your gear) or cabins with no electricity; there is no RV parking and no trailers at all, so van lifers sleep in a tent or book a cabin and leave the rig in town. From November through April, county law requires four-wheel drive with snow tires or chains on the access road, and they do turn people around.

Desert Reef Hot Spring

• Florence, Colorado, an hour south of Colorado Springs
• Day pass around $25 on weekdays and $35 on weekends; overnight van sites booked online; adults only

Desert Reef is a suits-optional, adults-only spring on the high desert east of the Rockies, with a large warm pool and a smaller hot one, lawns and shade sails, and a quiet, no-music culture. The one exception is Friday afternoons, when suits are required until 6:30 PM.

Overnights are for vans, truck campers and Class B rigs only: no tents, no car camping, no hookups, no generators and no dogs. The overnight includes an evening soak and the next morning. Check before you go: the spring closes for a few weeks each fall for maintenance, and it is closed on Tuesdays.

Conundrum Hot Springs

• Aspen, Colorado, in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness
• Overnight permit around $10 per person per night plus a reservation fee, online only; releases in February, June and October

Conundrum is the famous one: an 8.5-mile hike with 2,500 feet of gain to a pool at 11,200 feet. Nude soaking is the long-standing custom and the Forest Service page does not address it either way, so this is a wild spring where you read the room. Camping is at designated backcountry sites by permit, with a bear canister required, no dogs in the zone and no campfires. July through September is the window; the trailhead is snowed in from early October to late June. For a van lifer it is a two-night backpacking trip with the rig left at the trailhead.

New Mexico

Faywood Hot Springs

• Faywood, New Mexico, between Silver City and Deming, next to City of Rocks State Park
• Day use about $18 to $21; tent sites around $29 for one person or $46 for two; full-hookup RV sites around $39 to $69 depending on amps and party size

A reader who drives to Mexico every fall and spring stops at Faywood both ways and called it “so freeing and natural.” It is the most van-friendly spring on this list: separate clothing-required and clothing-optional (naturist) pools, so nobody has to negotiate, plus private pools by the hour, and a campground with primitive tent sites and pull-through RV sites with 30 and 50 amp full hookups. Cabins and a guesthouse if the weather turns.

Book online and prepay; the office confirms the reservation. The pools are open daily until 8 PM. Combine it with the boulder fields at City of Rocks next door and you have a two-night stop on the southern route west.

Riverbend Hot Springs

• Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, on the Rio Grande
• RV sites around $85 on weeknights and $115 on weekends with full hookups; private soaks around $40 to $50; no children under 12

An honest half-entry. Riverbend requires swimsuits in its riverside common pools, and only the private pools are clothing-optional, booked by the hour. Why it is here: it has six full-hookup RV sites across the street for self-contained rigs, the private tubs hang over the river with the Caballo Mountains across it, and Truth or Consequences has a dozen other bathhouses within walking distance. No cars, vans, trucks or tents in the RV sites, and reservations are required for everything.

San Antonio Hot Springs

• Jemez Springs, New Mexico, in the Santa Fe National Forest
• Free; San Antonio Campground nearby around $10 to $15 a night, six sites with electric and water for RVs to 35 feet, reserved on recreation.gov

A chain of hot pools on a hillside above a meadow, reached by a 0.7-mile trail at the end of Forest Road 376, which is closed to vehicles from December to May (people hike or bike the five miles then). The Forest Service page is silent on clothing, and nude soaking is the custom here. Read that carefully next to the next item: at Spence Hot Springs, a few miles away on the same forest, the same agency says nudity violates state law and cites people. The difference is the road and the crowd. Camp at San Antonio Campground, not at the springs.

California

Sierra Hot Springs

• Sierraville, California, an hour north of Truckee
• Membership $5 for a month or $20 a year; day use around $35 to $40; camping around $45 per person midweek and $60 on weekends

Sierra Hot Springs is a quiet, retreat-style place where the soaking area is clothing-optional in the onsen tradition: a geodesic-dome hot pool, a warm outdoor pool, cold plunges and a meadow. Tent, car and RV camping is on the property with no hookups, no fires or stoves, and no dogs anywhere, including in your vehicle. Everything is by advance reservation, there are no drop-ins, and the whole place is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Set up before dark.

Harbin Hot Springs

• Middletown, California, in the hills north of Calistoga
• Membership $15 for a trial month or $35 a year; a 24-hour visit with camping around $60 midweek and $75 on weekends and holidays

Harbin burned in a wildfire years ago and rebuilt, and its pool areas are clothing-optional again: the hot pool, the warm pool, the cold plunge and the sun decks. Clothing is required in the food areas, at classes, and anywhere in sight of the public road along the creek.

For campers it is generous: tents in the meadow and on creekside platforms, car camping allowed throughout the property, and RVs and campers up to 24 feet and two axles, with generators only between 10 AM and 6 PM. No hookups. The 24-hour visit is the deal, since it covers a night of camping and two days of pools. Two new hotel buildings are under construction, so expect some daytime noise.

Orr Hot Springs

• Ukiah, California, 13 winding miles from the nearest grocery store
• Camping around $83 per adult per night with a two-night minimum; day use around $50, noon to 9 PM

Orr is a century-old clothing-optional resort in a redwood canyon with clawfoot tubs, a tiled Japanese-style pool, a sauna and a communal kitchen where everyone cooks. Camping is eight tent sites and exactly one van spot (up to 9 by 22 feet) along the driveway; no RVs, no hookups, no sleeping in the parking lot. Reserve early for the van spot. There is no cell service and no Wi-Fi, and campers have to arrive and set up by 6 PM.

Wilbur Hot Springs

• Williams, California, in the Coast Range west of the Sacramento Valley
• Tent platform camping around $88 for one person or $175 for two per night, April to October; day use around $69 to $77

Wilbur is a solar-powered, phone-free nature preserve with long mineral flumes at three temperatures, and the bathing area is clothing-optional while clothing is required everywhere else. Camping is six walk-in tent platforms up a hill, with no vehicle or RV camping offered; a small van can be parked in the lot for the length of your stay. No fires, no stoves, confirmed reservations for every visit. The last stretch of road is unpaved, gated and shared with cows, so arrive in daylight.

Tecopa Hot Springs Campground

• Tecopa, California, in the desert south of Death Valley
• Camping and day passes priced by the campground operator; more than 200 spaces, big rigs welcome, some electric hookups, stays up to six months

Tecopa is the opposite of a wild spring: at the county campground, nudity in the baths is the law, not an option. Inyo County code says all bathing in the hot springs is done in the nude, in separate enclosed men’s and women’s bathhouses. So you will not be soaking with your partner, but you will be soaking in 105-degree mineral water for a day-pass price with your rig parked a short walk away, which is why the winter crowd of snowbirds and van lifers keeps coming back from October to April. Reservations are recommended; call the office for current rates, and check the county page for closure notices before a long drive.

Saline Valley Warm Springs

• Death Valley National Park, California, about 35 miles of dirt from pavement
• Park entrance fee only; primitive camping; four-wheel drive and high clearance

The park’s own management plan says it best: public nudity is common at the site, the plan is silent on it, and public nudity is not against federal regulations, though lewd behavior is. That makes Saline Valley the most honest wild spring in the country. Volunteers tend the tubs, there are palm trees, burros and a dirt airstrip, and the camping is free, primitive and anywhere outside 100 feet of the source springs.

Two warnings. The road is a real four-wheel-drive route with two to six hour emergency response times, and a fire in September burned the palms and host site at the Lower Spring; the park reopened more than half the campground within weeks, but the burn area is closed and the Lower Spring’s piping melted, so check the park’s current conditions page before you go.

Oregon and Washington

Breitenbush Hot Springs

• Detroit, Oregon, in the Cascades east of Salem
• Per-person nightly rates with three meals included, from around $129 in the bunk-style Milky Way to around $319 for the Forest Shelter, lodge rooms and yurts in between; camping on the property; day use by reservation

Breitenbush is the Pacific Northwest’s famous one: a worker-owned retreat center on the Breitenbush River with natural meadow pools, tiled spiral tubs, a steam sauna built over the spring, and a policy that could not be clearer: clothing is optional in the soaking areas, and you may soak nude or in a swimsuit. Clothing goes back on in the parking lot, the lodge and around the guest cabins. The pools are open around the clock, there is no cell service and no Wi-Fi by design, and every stay includes three mostly organic vegetarian meals a day in the lodge.

You can camp at Breitenbush, which makes it the one place on this list where you soak, eat and sleep under the same trees for one per-person rate; ask about camping when you book, because the lodging page leads with the cabins, yurts and the Milky Way, a renovated dairy truck turned bunkhouse. For a rig that needs its own site, the Forest Service’s Breitenbush Campground is on Forest Road 46 about ten miles up from Detroit: 29 riverside sites, rigs and trailers up to 24 feet, no hookups, and no drinking water since the fire damaged the system, open roughly mid-May to mid-October. Detroit Lake State Recreation Area is the year-round fallback with hookups. The retreat rebuilt after the fire a few years back and is still rebuilding parts of it; bring traction devices from November to April, and book ahead, because Portland knows about this place.

Terwilliger (Cougar) Hot Springs

• Blue River, Oregon, in the Willamette National Forest east of Eugene
• Around $12 per person for two hours; Cougar Crossing Campground nearby, 11 RV and tent sites, no hookups, around $15 to $19 a night

The Forest Service calls Terwilliger a clothing-optional hot springs on its own page, which makes it the rare wild spring with official blessing. Six stone pools step down a mossy canyon a quarter mile from the road, hottest at the top. The current forest order adds the fine print: no nudity visible from Forest Road 19, no entry from 10 PM until sunrise, and no alcohol.

Camping is restricted to the developed campgrounds of the Cougar Recreation Area; Cougar Crossing is the closest, with Slide Creek as the backup. The road is not plowed in winter, and the fire-scarred slopes from a few years back still drop trees.

Umpqua Hot Springs

• Toketee, Oregon, in the Umpqua National Forest
• Around $5 per vehicle at the trailhead (a forest pass works); Toketee Lake Campground nearby, 33 sites, no water, RVs to about 24 feet

Terraced travertine pools on a cliff above the North Umpqua River, with the top one under a wooden shelter. The Forest Service does not call it clothing-optional; its page says to expect high use and nudity, which is as close to a nod as a federal agency gives. The springs are day use only, sunrise to sunset, and camping is prohibited there, so stay at Toketee Lake Campground down the road. In winter the access road closes and the soak becomes a 2.5-mile walk or ski.

Goldmyer Hot Springs

• North Bend, Washington, up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie
• Day visit around $30 per adult; camping an extra $10 per adult per night; 20 visitors a day by permit

Goldmyer is a nonprofit-run spring in an old mine tunnel in the Cascades, swimsuit-optional by its own rules, with cascading pools and a cold creek beside them. It is a five-mile hike or bike from the trailhead, the campsites are hike-in with food-hang lines and no fires, and the permit comes by phone at least two business days ahead or through a lottery. The trailhead road wants all-wheel drive and eight or nine inches of clearance. Open every day of the year; read the access report first.

Idaho

Jerry Johnson Hot Springs

• Lolo Pass, Idaho, on US-12 an hour from Lolo, Montana
• Free; day use 6 AM to 8 PM; Jerry Johnson Campground nearby, 20 sites, no water, June to October

A mile’s walk from the highway along Warm Springs Creek brings you to a string of pools in the trees, and nude soaking is the long custom; the Forest Service page does not address clothing. What it does say is firm: no overnight camping at the springs, hours 6 AM to 8 PM, patrolled and cited. Jerry Johnson Campground is a short drive away on US-12 and is often free when no fee is being collected. This is the stop on the drive between Missoula and the Idaho panhandle.

Wild hot springs: clothing-optional by custom, no posted rule

The resorts above write their policy down. The springs below are on public land or old ranch land, and no agency page says a word about clothing; nude soaking is simply what people have done there for decades, and the only posted rules are about camping, fires and trash. We checked each one on the land manager’s page for closures and camping rules, and on at least one hot-springs guide for the custom. The honest frame: “clothing-optional by custom” means read the pool when you arrive, keep a suit in the bag for a crowded afternoon, and never be the person who makes a family leave. The ones where the agency now cites nudity are in the next section, by name.

The Long Valley springs near Mammoth Lakes (Wild Willy’s, Hilltop, Shepherd, Rock Tub, Crab Cooker)

• Mammoth Lakes, California, off Benton Crossing Road on BLM land
• Free; dispersed camping in the established BLM pull-offs, 14 days a year in the Bishop field office; no camping at the pools or in the lots

The classic Eastern Sierra soak and the reason half the vans on US-395 turn east at the green church. The BLM maintains the boardwalk to Wild Willy’s, with two pools at about 102 and 108 degrees and the Sierra crest across the valley; Hilltop, Shepherd and Rock Tub are a short drive apart on the same dirt roads, and Crab Cooker, the hottest and the party tub, sits on a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power parcel that is day use only. Clothing-optional is the established custom at all of them and no rule is posted either way; suits are common on busy afternoons, skin is common at sunrise.

Camp in the signed dispersed pull-offs on BLM land, never at the tubs or in the parking areas, and read the white LADWP signs, which mean day use only. The dirt roads close or turn to mud in snow, there are no toilets and no trash service, so pack everything out. These pools are busy; a weekday dawn is the version worth driving for.

Buckeye Hot Springs

• Bridgeport, California, in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest
• Free; Buckeye Campground about a mile away, around $24 a night, late May to late September, tents and small vehicles; dispersed camping elsewhere in the forest

Rock pools under a travertine grotto where a hot waterfall spills into Buckeye Creek, with the upper pools at the parking area and the lower creek pools down a steep scramble. The Forest Service’s campground page names the springs but says nothing about clothing; the long-standing local custom is clothing-optional, and swimsuits are welcome. No camping at the pools. The last stretch of Buckeye Road is washboard dirt that is not maintained in winter, so this is a summer and fall soak, and a bear-country one: a campfire permit and a food-storage habit are required.

Benton Hot Springs

• Benton, California, on Highway 120 east of the Sierra
• Around $95 to $105 a night for a campsite with its own hot tub (call to confirm); year-round

The easiest legal nude soak-and-sleep in the Eastern Sierra: eleven campsites on a private historic property, each with its own hot tub fed by the spring at roughly 102 to 105 degrees, a picnic table and a fire grill, for tents, vans and RVs with no hookups. Bathing is clothing-optional in your own tub site, with discretion expected, and quiet hours start at 9 PM. Paved road, drive-up, pets allowed, small, so reserve ahead through the Inn at Benton Hot Springs.

Spencer Hot Springs

• Austin, Nevada, in the Big Smoky Valley on BLM land
• Free; dispersed camping at the springs, at least 100 feet from the water, 14 days in 28

Two or three stock-tank tubs and a natural pool in the middle of Nevada’s emptiest valley, with the Toiyabe Range behind them and wild burros wandering through camp. The BLM says it plainly: no toilets, no drinking water, no services. Clothing-optional is the custom and nobody polices it. You camp right there, on the flats around the tubs, which is the whole appeal for a van. The unsigned dirt road off SR-376 is fine when dry and impassable after rain, and the BLM’s last cleanup replaced the fire rings, so leave it the way you found it or better.

Soldier Meadows Hot Springs

• North of Gerlach, Nevada, in the Black Rock Desert High Rock Canyon area
• Free; a BLM campground with seven sites, vault toilets and a free first-come cabin; 47 miles of dirt, high-clearance 4WD

The remote one. Natural rock-dammed pools from 90 to 112 degrees spread along Hot Creek, a BLM campground around them, and a free stone cabin with a wood stove for whoever arrives first. Clothing-optional by custom, and with 47 miles of dirt between you and pavement you will mostly have it to yourself. Two rules that matter: the roads become literally impassable in any precipitation, and the pools hold a threatened fish, the desert dace, so no sunscreen, soap or anything else goes in the water. No cell service at all.

Fish Lake Valley Hot Well

• Near Dyer, Nevada, maintained by Esmeralda County on BLM land
• Free; primitive camping at the site with a vault toilet and fire rings; rigs up to about 36 feet reported

An artesian well from the 1880s feeds a concrete tub at about 105 degrees that holds six, with cooler overflow ponds full of goldfish, in a wide valley under the White Mountains. Clothing-optional is the practice, with a caveat the state’s own magazine gave: it is well used, so keep a suit handy for company. You camp in the big flat beside it, a hundred feet from the water, with a toilet and sometimes trash cans. Seven miles of graded washboard off SR-264 that a passenger car handles when dry. No glass, and dogs stay out of the tub.

Alvord Hot Springs

• Fields, Oregon, at the edge of the Alvord Desert playa
• Call for rates; campsites and bunkhouses on site, RVs without hookups, soaking included for overnight guests; reservations

Two 1940s concrete pools beside a bathhouse at the foot of Steens Mountain, looking out over a dry lake bed you can drive on. It is private, Alvord Hot Springs runs a small store and bunkhouses, and the policy is clothing-optional by long custom, with families around in daytime, so bring a suit for the afternoon and leave it off at night. Overnight guests can soak any hour. The access road is county gravel, the rates are not posted (call), and day soakers are told to phone ahead.

Hart Mountain Hot Springs

• Plush, Oregon, on the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge
• Free; the Hot Springs Campground surrounds the pool, first come, 14 days in 30, trailers up to 24 feet; vault toilets, no water

A walled pool about nine by twelve feet and five feet deep at 100 to 104 degrees, with a second shallow natural pool beside it, on a high-desert wildlife refuge run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge’s rules say nothing about clothing, and inside the walls the custom is optional. The campground is free and wraps around the spring, which makes this the best free soak-and-camp in Oregon for a van or a small trailer. Gravel from Plush, then four and a half unpaved miles from refuge headquarters; roads stay open until snow closes them, and the refuge warns of construction stops on Hot Springs Road.

Black Rock Hot Springs

• Arroyo Hondo near Taos, New Mexico, on the Rio Grande in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument
• Free; dispersed camping at the John Dunn Bridge overlook about a mile above the springs, 14-day limit, small rigs

Rock-lined pools at the river’s edge below the John Dunn Bridge, the main one about 97 degrees and big enough for six, free and clothing-optional by custom, with the BLM saying only that pets stay out of the springs. The pools wash out in spring runoff, so this is a summer-to-winter soak. Park at the first switchback west of the bridge and walk five minutes down. There is no room for a rig at the river; camp at the free dispersed overlook up the hill, which suits a van and punishes a big trailer. The switchback road reopened after a rockslide closure and gates in bad weather.

Olympic Hot Springs

• Elwha Valley, Olympic National Park, Washington
• Park entrance fee; Boulder Creek wilderness camp beside the springs by advance permit, about $8 per adult per night plus a reservation fee; no fires, bear canister required

Seven or so rock pools in the rainforest at the end of the Elwha road, and the one wild spring on this list where the agency says the quiet part out loud: the park’s trail page notes that nudity is common and sets no clothing rule. The catch is the road. Olympic Hot Springs Road has been closed to vehicles at Madison Falls since a washout, so the soak is an eight-to-nine-mile walk or bike up the closed road, then a two-and-a-half-mile trail. Camp at Boulder Creek, permit in hand. The park also posts a standing warning about bacteria in the pools; soak at your own risk and keep your head out.

Skillern Hot Springs

• North of Fairfield, Idaho, in the Sawtooth National Forest
• Free; primitive sites up and down the creek from the springs; Canyon Transfer Camp at the trailhead; road closed October to mid-May

A cliffside pool at 100 to 106 degrees fed by a hot waterfall on Big Smoky Creek, three miles up a trail that fords the creek if you take the low route (take the high one). Clothing-optional by custom, no forest rule either way, and primitive campsites along the creek on both sides of the springs. The gravel approach takes an hour from Fairfield and closes for the winter, so this is a summer trip. Snakes are reported on the trail; the pool holds two to four people.

Goldbug (Gold Bug) Hot Springs

• Elk Bend, south of Salmon, Idaho, in the Salmon-Challis National Forest
• Free; camping banned within 500 feet of the springs and at the trailhead by a multi-year forest order; primitive sites farther up the trail, or BLM pullouts on the Salmon River a few miles away

A chain of waterfall-fed pools at 6,200 feet, reached by a two-mile trail with a thousand feet of gain up shadeless switchbacks, and signed as a clothing-optional area by local custom. The honest part is the camping: the Forest Service order bans camping within 500 feet of the springs for years to come, and the BLM trailhead bans it too. Sleep in your rig at the BLM pullouts on the river or in Elk Bend, hike up for the soak, and carry out everything. The winter trail is called treacherous by people who like it.

Springs that did not make the list, and why

Spence Hot Springs, New Mexico: the Forest Service page says nudity is a violation of state law and violators will be cited. Bagby Hot Springs, Oregon: public nudity is not allowed, per the Forest Service. Boiling River, Yellowstone: closed since the floods. Crystal Crane and Burgdorf: swimsuits required. Scenic Hot Springs, Washington: clothing-optional by reservation, but no camping and you must be out by sunset. Deep Creek, California: closed. A San Bernardino National Forest closure order names the hot springs and runs into the summer after next; the forest also warns of a rare, sometimes fatal amoeba in the pools. Trego, Nevada: the BLM’s advisory to avoid any contact with the water (E. coli and cholera bacteria) has never been lifted. Kelly Warm Spring, Grand Teton: the Park Service says not recommended, for the same reasons. Kirkham and Frenchman’s Bend, Idaho: swimwear is posted and required by the Forest Service, and neither allows camping. Mystic, Utah and Norris, Montana: good soaks with campgrounds, suits required. Travertine, California: left off on purpose: clothing-optional by custom for some, but the local Tribe uses the site ceremonially and asks for clothing, the BLM closes it for ceremonies, and the main cement tub has been closed for dangerously hot water; soak clothed and camp in the signed turnouts if you go.

A few more sit in the maybe pile: Bog and Twelve Mile in Nevada (probably private land, access uncertain), Manby near Taos (camping strictly banned at the site and the access road closed), Summer Lake in Oregon (camping and hookups on site, but the resort now closes the pools overnight, which is when it was clothing-optional), Penny in Colorado (a roadside dip with no camping and a county roadside-camping ban), and Verde in Arizona (a forest order against nudity is widely reported). If you know one of them well, tell me in the comments and we will check it.

How to soak nude at a wild hot spring without being that person

• Read the trailhead sign. Nudity rules on public land change by forest order, and the order is posted at the trailhead and on the agency page. If it says no nudity, that is the answer.
• Nude at the water, dressed on the trail. Every order that allows nudity limits it to the pools and their immediate deck, out of sight of roads and trails.
• Ask before you join a pool. At a wild spring the people already in the water set the tone. A quick “mind if I hop in?” and you are a soaker, not a stranger.
• No cameras, no drones. At the resorts it is a rule; at the wild springs it is the fastest way to empty a pool.
• Head above water. Warm natural pools can carry the amoeba that causes a rare and fatal infection; the Forest Service posts the warning at several of these. Do not submerge your head or splash water up your nose.
• Camp where the agency says. Nearly every wild spring above bans camping at the water. The named campgrounds are a few minutes away and are the whole reason this list works for a van.
• Pack it out, including the glass. Glass is banned at most of these for a reason, and a broken bottle in a pool closes it for everyone.

Clothing-optional hot springs FAQ

Sources

Every spring was checked on its own site or its land agency’s page (prices checked October 2026; “around” marks a posted rate that changes by season). Resorts: Orient Land Trust, Valley View guidelines · Orvis policies and rates · Strawberry Park FAQ · Desert Reef FAQ · Faywood prices · Riverbend FAQ · Sierra Hot Springs FAQ · Harbin helpful information · Orr camping · Wilbur, plan your visit · Goldmyer rules · Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Inyo County. Public land: NPS, Saline Valley plan and Saline Valley fire update · Breitenbush FAQ · Breitenbush rates · Breitenbush Campground (Willamette NF) · Willamette NF, Terwilliger order · Cougar Crossing Campground · Umpqua NF, Umpqua Hot Springs · Toketee Lake Campground · White River NF, Conundrum · Nez Perce-Clearwater NF, Jerry Johnson · Santa Fe NF, San Antonio Campground · Santa Fe NF, Spence (nudity cited) · Mt Hood NF, Bagby (no nudity) · NPS, Boiling River.

Wild springs (land manager pages, checked for closures and camping rules; the clothing custom from Hot Springs Guides, Soak Oregon, Idaho Hot Springs and Travel Nevada): BLM, Long Valley hot springs · Humboldt-Toiyabe NF, Buckeye Campground · BLM, Spencer Hot Springs · BLM Black Rock Field Office (Soldier Meadows; the Trego advisory) · USFWS, Hart Mountain camping · BLM, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument · Olympic NP, Boulder Creek Trail · Salmon-Challis NF, Gold Bug order · San Bernardino NF, Deep Creek closure.