San Carlos Hot Springs

San Carlos Hot Springs is a geothermal bathing site on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona, where warm bicarbonate springs emerge from the Precambrian and Mesozoic geology of the transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province in a landscape of piñon-juniper woodland and the blue waters of San Carlos Lake—created by Coolidge Dam on the Gila River in 1928. The springs have cultural and ceremonial significance for the San Carlos Apache people, whose reservation was established in 1872 and whose present-day tribal government manages the geothermal and recreational resources of this 4,800-square-kilometer sovereign territory in the Gila highlands. San Carlos Lake's bass and catfish fishing, the Gila Valley's mesquite grasslands, and the warm geothermal springs combine the natural resources of the Gila watershed with the living cultural presence of one of Arizona's most historically significant Apache communities.