The historic bathouse

Summer Lake Hot Springs

Note: Updated versions of these directions can be found on gwally.com/directions/. This page is no longer updated.

OK, what if we told you we found a faster route to Burning Man from Seattle and along the way was a really wonderful and cheap place to camp run by really nice people? You'd say wake up from the pipe dream, right?

Well the good news is that we have actually located such a place. It is such a great discovery we thought about keeping it secret, except then how would we run into all of our great friends we met on the Playa one more time?

The place is called Summer Lake Hot Springs. It is located 45 minutes north of Lakeview, Oregon. The best news is that it is actually along a road that takes you to Burning Man faster than if you took the route via Klammath Falls.

Inside the bathouse

The hot spring has been made into a bathhouse built in the 1920's. It has hundreds of signatures carved into the walls from visitors over the years. The owners really like the people they have met from Burning Man and they would like to encourage people to come and stop in on their way back from the Playa.

The pool is fed by a spring that delivers water at 113 degrees. It has a good flowrate and the water is not too hot or too laden with sulfur. Feel like taking an hour-long hot shower? Not a problem. The showers are 119 degrees and fed by a separate spring. If you feel like kicking back and showering for two hours, just bring your folding chair and relax. The shower is fed by a separate spring so you never have to worry about running out of hot water.

The cost is $6.00 per person per day which includes use of the hot springs and it is well worth it. You can stay in the hot springs all night if you like, the owners simply ask that you keep food and drink out of the water and keep the noise down at night. Best of all, there is no noise from the surrounding area and the place is nearly vacant of people. It is truly a hidden gem of a location.

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