Renova Hot Springs

Current status: closed to the public

For years Renova Hot Springs was a free, informal soak on the Jefferson River south of Whitehall. That has changed. The Madison County Board of Health closed the site in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and posted a sign on the trail. Since then the Madison County Sheriff’s Office has declared the springs off-limits. Local guides describe the stricter stance as a response to years of complaints about trash, parties, fights and damage.

The land problem is older than the closure. The pools themselves sit in a side channel of the river, but the path from Point of Rocks Road down to the east bank crosses an old mining claim held by several owners, some of whom live out of state. There is no public right-of-way, and the BLM’s national land-status data shows the area around the springs as private. This page explains what the place is and why you should not go, and points you to legal soaks nearby.

What the springs are

Renova is a small cluster of hot seeps on the east bank of the Jefferson River, roughly 10 miles south of Whitehall in the shadow of the Tobacco Root Mountains. The USGS sampled the river here in 1976 and still lists the spot as “Jefferson R at Renova Hot Springs.” Hot water bubbles out of the gravel at the edge of the river and has been dammed with river rock into a few shallow pools. Cold river water seeps in from the other side, and the mix is what makes the pools soakable.

That balance is touchy. A cyclist who visited on July 25, 2024 measured about 130°F54°C at the main seeps, about 120°F49°C in the two source pools and 109°F43°C in the coolest pool, because the river was a few inches too low to cool them. The pools were only about 10 inches deep that day. In spring the opposite happens: snowmelt raises the Jefferson and floods the pools with cold water. Guides that described the place before the closure put the usual window at midsummer to early fall, with the lower pools at roughly 100-108°F38-42°C.

There are no facilities. No toilets, no trash cans, no shade and no changing area. Clothing was optional by local custom.

Getting there (and why not to)

The springs are reached from Montana Highway 55 south of Whitehall. Guides describe a turn at the Waterloo road about 10 miles south of town, a bridge over the Jefferson, and then several miles of gravel to Point of Rocks Road, which runs north along the east side of the river. The last stretch is dirt, with a steep grade, and it turns greasy after rain. From a small pullout, a short, steep path drops down an embankment to the water, a few hundred yards at most.

That path is the problem. It crosses private land, and the county has closed it. Do not park on the road shoulder, climb fences or walk past closure signs. Montana’s Stream Access Law lets the public use rivers and streambeds up to the ordinary high-water mark, but it does not give anyone the right to cross private land to reach them. Officials have not said that reaching the pools by boat is allowed, and there is no public launch at the springs, so treat the site as closed from every direction.

When it might reopen

There is no announced plan to reopen Renova. A change would need the county to lift its closure and the landowners to agree to some form of access, and neither has happened publicly. If that changes, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office would be the agency to confirm it. Until then, plan your trip around the legal options below.

Rules that apply

• The site is off-limits. The county closure covers the trail and the springs, whether or not a sign is up when you pass.
• Private land. Crossing the mining claim without permission is trespassing in Montana.
• No camping. Even before the closure, there was no legal camping at the springs.
• Pack it out. The trash left here is a big part of why the site was closed.

Where to soak and stay instead

• Norris Hot Springs is a developed public pool east of the Tobacco Roots near the Madison River, fed by geothermal water and open to anyone who pays at the gate.
• Boulder Hot Springs is a historic inn with day-use pools north of Whitehall, near the town of Boulder.
• Pipestone Village and Hot Springs, on the Delmoe Lake Road west of Whitehall, rents cabins and domes that each come with a private hot-spring tub.
• Potosi Hot Springs, on the east side of the Tobacco Roots above Pony, has a small, rustic pool near a Forest Service campground.

For camping, Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, east of Whitehall on Montana Highway 2, has a campground, cabins and cave tours. Whitehall has motels, fuel, groceries and a few places to eat.

Safety notes

• Scalding seeps: The source water is hot enough to burn. When river levels are low, even the pools can be well over 105°F41°C.
• River hazards: The Jefferson is cold and runs high during spring runoff, and the rocks at the edge of the channel are slick.
• Unstable bank: The path down from Point of Rocks Road is steep loose dirt. Local guides call it hazardous in wet or winter weather.
• Water quality: Untreated, shallow pools mixed with river water are not clean. Never put your head under in any natural hot spring.