Hot Springs in Oregon: Where You Can Sleep Beside the Water

Are There Natural Hot Springs in Oregon?

Yes. Oregon has natural hot springs in the forested Cascades and out in the high desert of the southeast.

They split into two kinds. A handful of resorts sit on their own spring water and sell rooms, meals and pools you can drive to. The rest are Forest Service springs reached on foot, where you pay a small fee at the trailhead and share rustic pools with whoever got there first. The resorts come first below, because they are the only way to sleep beside the water.

Which Hot Springs in Oregon Let You Stay the Night?

The table compares what you sleep in, what a room buys you at the water, and what day visitors get. Figures come from each resort's own site.

Cascades Resorts: Breitenbush, Belknap and Kah-Nee-Ta

Breitenbush Hot Springs. Your room rate buys three organic vegetarian meals a day and 24-hour access to the pools and sauna, and the buildings are heated by the spring water itself. Water runs about 100–110°F / 38–43°C and varies within a pool. The catch: no cell service or WiFi on the property, and clothing is optional in the soaking areas but required in the lodge and around guest accommodations. Children 12 and under are welcome when supervised. Day visitors can book Day Use passes from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Belknap Hot Springs. Lodge rooms cost $140 to $215 a night plus lodging tax, and the $215 room sleeps up to six. Overnight guests soak 9:00 am to 9:00 pm in two mineral pools, with the upper pool reserved for guests, and lodge guests get a continental breakfast. The catch: walk-ins pay $12 per person for just one hour, there are no walk-ins on federal holidays, clothing is required, and children must be at least 5 to enter the pool area. Wi-Fi works only in the lodge lobby. Check Belknap availability.

Kah-Nee-Ta Hot Springs Resort. It reopened in 2024 after closing in 2018, following a $13.1 million renovation, and owned by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. You get seven wellness pools with jets, a lazy river and a cold plunge, natural soaking pools at 92 to 104°F / 40°C, and a zero-depth pool for small children, plus hotel rooms, tepees, RV sites and a cabin. The catch: pools, spa, restaurant and store run Thursday to Monday through the winter, though lodging is open 7 days a week. Day visitors can buy a limited-time $19 evening Pool Pass from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm, and passes booked online in advance cost 10% less. Check Kah-Nee-Ta availability.

Eastern Oregon and Ashland: Hot Lake, Summer Lake, Crane

Hot Lake Springs. You sleep in rooms and suites of a restored 1906 lodge that sits on one of the Northwest's largest and hottest mineral springs, with nine outdoor pools. The springs were used by the Nez Perce and Oregon Trail travellers. The catch: day-use guests need reservations and soaking ends at 8 pm. Check Hot Lake Springs availability.

Summer Lake Hot Springs. This is the one resort where a bed is the only way in: soaking is for overnight guests only, in an indoor 98°F / 37°C bathhouse pool and 104°F / 40°C outdoor rock pools. You get 10 geothermally heated cabins, two three-bedroom houses with a 2-night minimum, or RV and tent camping at $25 per person per night plus tax. The catches: cabin rates are quoted at booking, the indoor pool closes for the season after November 15, and pools shut 9 pm to 8 am Thursday and Sunday nights for cleaning.

Crane Hot Springs. Overnight guests soak in the geothermal pond around the clock, and some lodgings come with a private cedar soaking tub. You choose cabins, rooms, tepees or campsites near Burns. Day visitors need no reservation, so the pond gets busier in daytime than after dark. Book on Crane's own site.

Ashland, briefly. Lithia Springs Resort keeps the water private: 46 bungalows, suites and studios come with mineral water in your own soaking tub or mineral shower, with the Waterstone Spa on site, about 3 miles from downtown. Jackson WellSprings is the communal version about 2.5 miles out of town, with an Olympic-sized pool fed by 80,000 gallons a day of naturally alkaline mineral water, private tubs, and camping from tents to tipis to an RV park.

What Are the Best Free Hot Springs in Oregon?

Only one of the well-known forest springs costs nothing to soak in. Paulina Lake charges no soaking fee, Terwilliger and Bagby charge small fees on site, and Umpqua needs a recreation pass to park. All four are first come, first served, with no lodging at the pools.

Is Umpqua Hot Springs Worth Visiting?

Yes, if you accept the walk and the parking rules. The trail is 0.6 miles with one steep, slippery section, so wear shoes that grip. You need a recreation pass or day-use fee to park at the trailhead, and Umpqua National Forest fee sites are cashless, so sort the fee on Scan & Pay or Recreation.gov before you lose signal. Soaking is clothing optional. There is no lodging at the springs, so the nearest hotel night with thermal water is a long drive away.

Rules That Apply at Every Oregon Spring

• No soap or shampoo in the pools, even biodegradable. Public springs have no plumbing.
• Pack out all trash.
• At Bagby, empty your tub and refill it halfway so the next bather gets cooler water.
• At Terwilliger, alcohol is prohibited and there must be no visible nudity from the byway.
• At Belknap, clothing is required in the pool area.

Want a Hot Springs Hotel Instead?

No Oregon town has its own hotel-by-hotel comparison on this site yet, so the nearest destinations covered in full are Harrison Hot Springs hotels in British Columbia and Calistoga hot springs hotels in California, with Desert Hot Springs hotels further south. The sister guide to hot springs in California covers the springs between them, and what counts as a hot springs hotel explains how to tell a hotel with its own water from one that only borrows the name. Every destination sits on the hot springs hotels homepage.