Sleeping Child Hot Springs

Sleeping Child Hot Springs are located near Hamilton in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana, a long and spectacularly beautiful valley between the Bitterroot Mountains to the west and the Sapphire Mountains to the east, drained by the Bitterroot River and flanked by the massive Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness — one of the largest wilderness areas in the contiguous United States, where millions of acres of roadless mountain terrain shelter grizzly bears, wolves, elk, mountain goats, and some of the most pristine wild country remaining in the lower 48 states. The Bitterroot Valley is historically significant as the route taken by Lewis and Clark through the mountains in 1805 and 1806, and the valley's ranching and orchard heritage creates a landscape of pastoral beauty between towering mountain walls. The hot springs draw on geothermal resources in the Bitterroot's volcanic and hydrothermal geology, providing mineral bathing in one of Montana's most scenic and historically significant valleys.