Meadow Hot Springs, Utah: 3 free springs on private land between Zion National Park and Salt Lake City
If you're headed from Zion National Park to Salt Lake City, you'll pass right by these free hot springs on private land
Meadow Hot Springs near Fillmore, Utah are no longer a “hidden gem” so don’t expect solace. But there’s a reason these springs are so popular: there’s three of them, and they range in temperature from warm (mid-80s) to hotter than body temp (about 100 degrees), plus they’re just a short drive from the I-15 in Utah, which means you’re only about 5 miles from the highway and should have good cell reception no matter your carrier (we both had LTE on Sprint and Verizon). Meadow Hot Springs are located on private property, but as of March 2018 they’re still free (donation-based), open to the public, and as far as we can tell you’re also welcome to spend the night. Make sure to be respectful, clean up after yourself, and leave the place better than you found it.
Overall Hot Springs Rating:
3 out of 5 stars
GPS Coordinates: 38.8636476,-112.5110174
Cost: Free
Type of campsite: Private land. Donation-based. No signs about acceptable length of stay (but we stayed overnight and had no problem). We didn’t see any people tent camping while we were there but have read in another review that others have tent-camped at the springs.
Days/seasons of operations: These free hot springs are always open. 24/7. Since these springs aren’t blazingly hot they would probably be good year-round (hang in the hottest one in the winter, and the coolest one in the summertime).
Access: Graded dirt road.
Description of the approach: Approximately 5 miles of dirt road to the main parking area about 100 yards away from the first spring as of Spring 2018. The roads past this main parking area are questionably maintained, may have large pot holes and/or be muddy. Be *very* careful if you try to continue past the main parking area. We saw two vehicles get stuck while we were there (a Ford Explorer and a Sprinter van). The Explorer suffered electrical damage and had to get towed due to getting stuck in a deep water-filled pothole.
Cell Phone (or wifi?): Yes. 2-4 bars of Verizon and Sprint LTE
Distance to closest grocery store? 10 miles to Kanosh Merc & Country Farm Store in Kanosh, Utah.
Things to do nearby/activities and adventures: The closest town is Fillmore, Utah where you’ll find a few drive-in style restaurants, a pizza joint and a Subway. These articles (here and here) provide good beta for lava tube hikes at Tabernacle Hill just a few miles from Meadow Hot Springs, which we didn’t partake in because we were mostly here as a midway point between Zion National Park and Salt Lake City.
Amenities or Bathrooms? No amenities or bathrooms. Bring everything you need with you (water, food) and practice leave no trace principles!
Cleanliness: Relatively clean when we visited, however we did pick up an entire bag full of trash that people left behind. Clean up after yourself. Don’t be that person leaving trash for the next visitors to pick up!
Size of springs: Three springs. The hottest spring (the middle-sized of the three) is the deepest at 27+ feet deep and could probably comfortably fit 15+. The coolest and largest is quite large and could probably fit 30+.
Temperature: The three springs range in temperature from around 80 degrees to 100 degrees in the hottest pool.
Parking: Plenty of parking within a short walk of the springs. Depending on road or weather you may also be able to park right next to some of the springs.
Overnight stay? Maybe. We stayed overnight and didn’t have any issues, but this is on private land and there aren’t any sign that indicate if this is technically allowed.
Clothing optional: Unsure. Perhaps if you’re alone, but since this was a popular location we wore our suits most of the time.
Children? Yes. We were there during spring break and there were lots of families, college students, etc.
Would we stay again? Yes.
Meadow Hot Springs Review Summary
We had a very nice overnight stay at Meadow Hot Springs and while it’s probably not a destination in and of itself, we absolutely recommend these springs to anyone traveling in the area on I-15 or between Zion National Park and Salt Lake. We even took a detour to get there since we were headed from Zion (Kolob Canyon area) to Moab and weren’t disappointed.
There’s plenty of parking just a short walk away from the three hot springs, and with three pools of varying temperatures to choose from you should be able to find a pool that suits you year round. Plus there’s a bit of novelty with these springs: first, the 27+ foot spring is probably one of the deepest we’ve ever been to, and second: you can jump off a dock into the largest spring (which we’d never done before).
The main drawback of these springs is that they’re popular so you may find leftover evidence of other visitors and you likely won’t have much time in the springs solo although you may get lucky like we did for a short period of time before sunrise.
All that, combined with an easy approach and good cell signal make Meadow Hot Springs a pretty solid destination for free Utah hot springs.
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