For many years now my standard hot spring guides have been those by Jason Loam. The original titles are out of print, but they have been updated by Marjorie Gersh-Young and republished. Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Northwest: Jayson Loam’s Original Guide covers Alaska, Canada, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Southwest: Jayson Loam’s Original Guide covers Arizona, Baja, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Hawaii. So between them these two titles cover the entire west, from the Rockies to Hawaii. Highly recommended.
The Jayson Loam guides concentrate on hot springs you can either drive to, or reach by a short walk from the road. But there are many wonderful hot springs that are way back in the wilderness, offering solitude and scenery beyond that of the more accessible ones. Hiking Hot Springs in the Pacific Northwest, 3rd Edition, by Evie Litton does a great job of covering these remote springs, though only for Oregon and Washington.
Yet another guide to northwest hot springs worth looking at: Umbrella Guide to Northwest Natural Hot Springs: Washington, Oregon, B.C., Alaska, by Tom Stockley, and B.G. Olson.
Books about Canada are usually much scarcer than ones about the U.S., so I was pleased to see Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide: Also Includes Some Hot Springs in Alaska and Washington, by Glenn Woodsworth
- Falcon Guides have started a whole series on hot springs, covering one or two states in each volume.
- Touring California and Nevada Hot Springs, by Matt C. Bischoff
Touring Montana and Wyoming Hot Springs, by Jeff Birkby
Touring Colorado Hot Springs, by Carl Wambach
Touring Arizona Hot Springs, by Matt C. Bischoff
Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs, by Jeff Birkby
Touring New Mexico Hot Springs, by Matt C. Bischoff
Some of the most beautifual and exotic hot springs are in New Mexico, for which we have: Enchanted Waters: A Guide to New Mexico’s Hot Springs, by Craig Martin. And another one about Colorado: Colorado’s Hot Springs, 2nd Edition, by Deborah Frazier George.
Beautiful Spas and Hot Springs of California, by Stanley Young, and Melba Levick (photographer) is a rather different sort of hot spring book. It focuses on a few developed hot springs and luxurious spas in California. They range from high-price resorts such as the Givenchy Hotel and Spa, to the "human potential" Esalen Institue perched on the cliffs of Big Sur, and the remote Zen Buddhist monastery (and rustic hot spring) at Tassajara, deep in the Santa Lucia Mountains. The photography is beautiful, and the locales are spectacular. Recomended as either a coffee table book, or a hedonist's guide to soothing waters.
- Finally, there are the unique guides by George Williams III. These are slim volumes, locally published, with few photographs, and some of the maps are just terrible. But there is a vigor and candor in Mr. Williams' writing that is irresistable. It is almost like you met him in a hot spring somewhere and he told you about his favorite springs and sketched you a map. Not a polished production like the Jason Loam books, or the Falcon Guides, but I have them all, some of them autographed by the author. If you can't get them from Amazon look for them in small towns near hot springs.
- Hot Springs of Nevada, by George Williams III, Bill Dalton
- Hot Springs of the Eastern Sierra, by George Williams III
- Hot Springs of Northern California, by George Williams III
- Hot Springs of the Eastern Sierra, by George Williams III
- Guidebooks to Hot Springs
- Birkby, Jeff, Touring Montana and Wyoming Hot Springs
- Birkby, Jeff, Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs
- Bischoff, Matt C., Touring Arizona Hot Springs
- Bischoff, Matt C., Touring California and Nevada Hot Springs
- Bischoff, Matt C., Touring New Mexico Hot Springs
- George, Deborah Frazier, Colorado’s Hot Springs, 2nd Edition
- *Gersh-Young, Marjorie, Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Northwest: Jayson Loam’s Original Guide
- *Gersh-Young, Marjorie Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Southwest: Jayson Loam’s Original Guide
- Litton, Evie, Hiking Hot Springs in the Pacific Northwest, 3rd Edition
- martin, Craig, Enchanted Waters: A Guide to New Mexico’s Hot Springs
- Stockley, Tom, Umbrella Guide to Northwest Natural Hot Springs: Washington, Oregon, B.C., Alaska
- Wambach, Carl, Touring Colorado Hot Springs
- Williams, George III, Hot Springs of the Eastern Sierra
- Williams, George III, Hot Springs of Nevada
- Williams, George III, Hot Springs of Northern California
- Woodworth, Glenn, Hot Springs of Western Canada: A Complete Guide: Also Includes Some Hot Springs in Alaska and Washington
- Young, Stanley, Beautiful Spas and Hot Springs of California
- Birkby, Jeff, Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs
- * recommended
