Alvord Hot Springs Oregon

Alvord Hot Springs is set on the remote Alvord Desert playa in southeastern Oregon — one of the largest flat alkali lake beds in the American West, a sun-bleached expanse of cracked white mud ten miles wide bordered by the dramatic Steens Mountain fault scarp rising 1,500 meters in a single vertical face — where chloride-rich geothermal water from the Great Basin volcanic zone fills simple outdoor pools with views across the vast playa that stretch in every direction to the horizon. The springs, accessible only via long dirt roads through the remote Oregon high desert, are used by land-speed record drivers who race across the dried playa as well as hot spring enthusiasts and Great Basin adventurers seeking the combination of volcanic mineral water and one of America's most dramatically minimalist landscape experiences. Soaking in chloride volcanic water on the edge of the Alvord Desert while watching the colors of Steens Mountain change from ochre to purple at sunset creates a uniquely American West high-desert thermal experience of extraordinary spaciousness and raw geological power.