Shipherd's Hot Springs

What to expect

Shipherd’s Hot Springs is a name from Columbia River Gorge history, not a place you can soak today. In the early 1900s it was a hotel and bathhouse on the Wind River just north of Carson, Washington, one of two competing hot springs resorts in the valley. The other, St. Martin’s, survives as Carson Hot Springs Resort. Shipherd’s did not.

There is no hotel, bathhouse, pool, parking area or operator. What is left is the river, Shipherd Falls and some warm seepage near the water that locals have used informally over the years. No land manager or owner we could find offers public access to those seeps, and recent reports describe them as posted against entry.

We list it so that anyone who finds the name in an old guidebook or a map knows what is really there, and where to soak legally instead.

History

The written record is thin, so take the dates as approximate.

Photos in the Skamania County Heritage collection, held by the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, show Shipherd’s Hot Springs and its bathhouse in the early twentieth century. One, dated around 1920, shows a visitor and her dog in the snow “at the springs”. A local history discussion hosted by the Hood River History Museum places the Shipherd’s Springs Hotel up the Wind River north of St. Martin’s Hot Springs and says it was built in 1906 and burned down in 1930. That account comes from a reader’s recollection rather than an official record.

What is clear is that the hotel did not come back. St. Martin’s, downstream, carried on and eventually became Carson Hot Springs Resort, which still runs mineral baths today.

Where it is

The old resort stood on the Wind River north of Carson, near Shipherd Falls, on the river less than a mile northwest of the Carson Hot Springs Resort grounds as the crow flies. The coordinates on this page mark Shipherd Falls as mapped by the USGS, since no official source gives a location for the springs themselves. Federal land status data shows Forest Service land at the falls, and the 2015 hiker report below describes the area as acquired for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Neither makes the seeps a developed or open recreation site.

Carson itself is on State Route 14 in the Columbia River Gorge, just east of Stevenson. The Wind River Highway runs north from Carson toward the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and Shipherd Falls Road is a local road near the falls.

Access and the trespass question

People have reached the warm seeps near Shipherd Falls in the past by crossing a footbridge over the Wind River from the Carson side, or by wading the river. In 2015 a hiker reported No Trespassing signs on that footbridge, citing a hazard, and wrote that enforcement had started after vandalism to a shed across the river. The same account mentioned trash and graffiti left after parties, and past deaths at the falls.

That report is now more than ten years old, and we could not find any newer official statement opening the site. Until a land manager says otherwise:

• Do not cross posted bridges or private land to reach the seeps.
• Do not park in the residential neighborhood near the falls to look for a route.
• Do not try to swim or wade the Wind River near the falls. The river is fast and cold, and the rocks around the cascades are slick.

If you see current signs that allow public access, follow them, and please tell us so we can update this page.

Where to soak instead

You do not need to trespass to get into hot water in this part of the Gorge.

• Carson Hot Springs Resort, on the old St. Martin’s site a short drive away, sells day use of its therapy pool and its traditional clawfoot-tub mineral bath followed by a linen wrap. It is open all year.
• Tenzen Cabins + Springs in Home Valley, just east of Carson, has six modern cabins, each with a private outdoor tub filled with geothermal water from a deep well. It is overnight only, with no day passes and no children.

Both are on private property, run by staff, with clear rules and posted prices.

When to go

There is no season for Shipherd’s itself. For the area, Gorge weather matters more than the calendar: winters are wet and windy with the odd snowfall, and summers are warm and dry. A rainy winter day is the best time for a soak at Carson.

Rules and etiquette

• Respect posted signs. No Trespassing signs apply whether or not you think the bridge is safe.
• Leave no trace anywhere along the Wind River. The area has suffered from trash and graffiti.
• Fishing and river rules: If you are on the Wind River for other reasons, check current Washington fishing regulations before you cast.

Where to stay nearby

• Carson Hot Springs Resort has its own lodging and an 18-hole golf course next to the baths.
• Stevenson, a few miles west on SR 14, has hotels, restaurants and the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center.
• Gifford Pinchot National Forest campgrounds line the Wind River Road north of Carson. Check the Forest Service for current openings and fire restrictions.

Safety notes

• Water and rocks: Shipherd Falls is a fast, cold, rocky stretch of river. People have died there. Admire it from a legal viewpoint.
• Poison oak and ticks are common in the brush along the lower Wind River.
• Untested water: Any informal seep by a river can hold bacteria. That is one more reason to use a staffed resort instead.

Nearby stops worth adding

The Wind River valley north of Carson leads into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, with forest trails and waterfalls. Back on SR 14, the Columbia River Gorge has some of the best viewpoints and hikes in the Northwest, and the Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks links you to the Oregon side.