Paulina Lake Hot Springs (warm spring)

Paulina Lake Hot Springs is a warm spring, not a hot one. NOAA's Thermal Springs List for the United States records a vent named Paulina Springs at 70°F. The Deschutes National Forest does not publish a temperature for water a person would sit in, so the number on this page is that surveyed vent, and the listing is labeled warm because 70°F is under 100°F. The Forest Service still uses the words "hot springs" for these shoreline features. That is the place name. It is not a claim that the water soaks hot. The Forest Service's 2025 Volcanic Vistas guide for Newberry National Volcanic Monument calls Newberry's hot springs unique shoreline features of the Newberry Caldera. Sometimes the lakes submerge them. They are extremely shallow, primitive, and undeveloped, and the guide says there are no facilities in the vicinity. The same publication says the hot springs at the lakes are undeveloped and shallow, and it asks visitors not to dig around them. It also says regulations prohibit digging, fires, and camping outside developed campgrounds in the caldera, and it tells visitors to follow Leave No Trace because there are no facilities at the springs. This page is the Paulina Lake shoreline. It is not East Lake Hot Springs, the separate Forest Service hot springs boating site on East Lake, the other lake in the same caldera. The Forest Service says both lakes rely on rain, snowmelt, and hot springs for their water. Paulina Lake Day Use Area is on Paulina Lake, next to Paulina Lake Campground, and is day use only, with no overnight camping at that site. It has a picnic site, the trailhead for the Paulina Lakeshore Trail, a boat launch, vault toilets, and no potable water. There is a 10 mph speed limit on the lake. A recreation pass is required there: $5 per vehicle per day, or a Northwest Forest Pass, including the $30 annual pass, or an accepted interagency pass. A concessionaire operates the site. From Bend, the Forest Service says to drive south on Highway 97 for 23.5 miles, then east on Paulina Lake Road, County Road 21, for 12 miles, across from the Paulina Visitor Center. Those published coordinates are the day-use area, not the spring. The Forest Service does not publish a trail mileage from the day-use sites to the springs, so this listing does not invent one. The mapped point is the named hot spring on the Paulina Lakeshore Trail. A road-network measurement puts the nearest drivable road about 0.83 miles from that point in a straight line, which is not a trail distance. The Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District phone is (541) 383-5300.

Sources: fs.usda.gov (1), fs.usda.gov (2), doi.pangaea.de, fs.usda.gov (3), openstreetmap.org

Reaching Paulina Lake Hot Springs in La Pine, Oregon means leaving pavement about 0.83 miles short of the spring; that nearest road is unnamed here. Backcountry and undeveloped, according to what is on the operator's own site. The NOAA thermal springs figure for the vent is 70°F. Access is priced as free and the amenities list is empty in our data. Ask on site about clothing rules; nothing in our file settles the policy.

Source: NOAA thermal springs survey — PAULINA SPRINGS, 70°F. This is the surveyed vent, labeled warm. The Forest Service does not publish a pool temperature.