Kern River Valley Hot Springs: What to Know Before You Go

Not every real place in a travel guide is a simple recommendation. The Kern River Valley’s hot springs are a genuine, long-running local tradition, and also a case where the honest, useful information is as much about what’s changed and what to verify as it is about where to soak.

Remington Hot Springs

The best-known hot springs in the Kern River Valley is Remington Hot Springs, a set of geothermal pools built above the Kern River by volunteers over the years, off Kern Canyon Road in Sequoia National Forest. In its typical configuration, three stone soaking tubs sit directly above the river, with a smaller, cooler basin known as the Miner’s Pool set back from the bank for visitors who want a milder soak. Water temperature in the main tubs typically runs in the 100-106°F range, a genuine natural hot spring experience, free to visit with no permit required, which is exactly what’s made it popular for decades.

A genuinely volatile recent history

That popularity has come with real problems. The site has recorded two deaths in recent years: one discovered in October 2022, and another confirmed on February 17, 2024, found inside one of the soaking tubs. After the second fatality, the U.S. Forest Service closed Remington Hot Springs indefinitely, with the district ranger stating the closure would remain in place until a sustainable long-term safety solution could be worked out, on top of an existing history of overcrowding and vandalism at the site. Reporting from mid-2025 indicated the springs had reopened, but sources have since diverged again: some 2026 trip reports describe it as accessible with trail washouts, while other listings mark it closed. Given how often the status has flipped, treating any single source’s “it’s open” (or “it’s closed”) as current fact without double-checking would be a real mistake for anyone actually planning a trip.

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The practical takeaway is simple: call or check with the Kern River Ranger District directly before building a trip around Remington Hot Springs, rather than relying on any older guide or review. The access trail itself adds another layer of uncertainty: recent fires and flooding in the area have caused washouts and downed trees, and sections can intermittently disappear, independent of whether the springs themselves are officially open.

Miracle Hot Springs: a cautionary parallel

Remington isn’t the valley’s only hot springs, and it isn’t the only one with a complicated recent status. Miracle Hot Springs, once another popular soaking destination in the area, had its tubs physically removed by Forest Service law enforcement in November 2022, specifically for public safety reasons. It remains closed as of this writing, though a local group, Kern River Angels, has been working with Forest Rangers on a potential rebuild, with no confirmed reopening date. Between the two sites, the pattern is clear: Kern River Valley’s hot springs are real, genuinely worth knowing about, and also genuinely subject to closures that can happen with little notice, tied directly to public safety incidents rather than routine maintenance.

For visitors weighing a trip, checking directly with the Kern River Ranger District (760-376-3781) or the U.S. Forest Service’s Sequoia National Forest recreation pages before traveling is the one piece of advice that matters more than any specific soaking tip. Status here has changed enough times recently that anything else risks being out of date by the time you read it.