HotSpringer

Plan. Explore. Soak.

Every hot spring has a story.

HotSpringer is a private journal for the hot springs you love, not a map for everyone else. Save the places you find, log every soak, keep your photos with the places they belong, and look back on the adventures that got you there.

Available Soon See how it works

For iPhone · No public map, no account, no ads, no tracking

HotSpringer showing a saved spring: a photo of a clear green pool among rocks and pines, its compass direction, and a map of the spring beside the river.

Why HotSpringer

A hot spring is never just a pin on a map.

It's the washboard road that took longer than expected. The trail down to the river. Steam at sunrise, stars after dark, and the friend who told you about it in the first place.

HotSpringer keeps those places, and the moments you spent there, together in one quiet, personal collection.

Our ethos

Built to keep secrets, not spread them.

Many hot springs are fragile, and many are cherished because few people know the way. HotSpringer is a journal for the places you've found, never a guide to everyone else's.

  • HotSpringer isn't

    • A public directory or database of hot springs
    • A public map that anyone can browse
    • A social network with profiles, followers, or a feed
    • A place for reviews, ratings, or public check-ins

  • HotSpringer is

    • A private journal of springs you found, researched, or were told about
    • Your visits, photos, and notes, kept on your iPhone
    • Shared only when you choose, directly with people you know
    • Invisible to everyone else. We can't see your springs either.

Care for the places you love

The springs worth keeping are worth protecting. Pass them along the way they came to you: quietly, to people you trust. Respect closures and private and tribal land, stay on durable ground, pack out what you bring, and leave every pool as you found it.

A blank page

It starts empty. That's the point.

HotSpringer doesn't come with a list of hot springs. There's no database to scroll and no pins dropped by strangers. Your collection begins with the first place you find, research, or hear about from a friend, and grows one adventure at a time.

  • Earned, not downloaded

    Every spring in your journal is one you went looking for. A short list you've soaked in means more than a thousand pins you never will.

  • Passed along, the old way

    The best springs travel by word of mouth. A friend can send you a spring directly, and the ones you track down yourself go in by coordinates or a tap on the map.

  • Kind to fragile places

    An app that doesn't hand out locations can't send crowds to them. Without a public list, the quiet places stay quiet.

Your collection

Collect the places that matter.

Add springs you found yourself, heard about from a friend, or tracked down through your own research. Your collection grows one adventure at a time.

  • Save it from the spring itselfStanding at the water's edge? Use your current location to capture the exact spot in seconds.
  • Or enter exact coordinatesType in a latitude and longitude from your research or a friend, or pick the spot on the map.
  • Organize with regions and tagsGroup springs by region and filter your list by the tags that matter to you.
  • Notes that stay yoursKeep descriptions, access details, and personal observations with each spring.
The Hot Springs list grouped by region, with tag and region filters and a visited or unvisited badge on each spring.

Explore & navigate

From your map to the water's edge.

Every spring you save appears on a map that's yours alone. When it's time to go, HotSpringer helps you get there, from the highway to the last stretch of trail.

  • Navigate with Apple MapsFrom wherever you are, one tap opens Apple Maps with turn-by-turn directions straight to the spring.
  • Adventure modeA live, direction-finding map for the final stretch on foot. See how it works.
  • Distance and drive timeSee how far each spring is from home and from where you're standing.
The HotSpringer map of a forested mountain region, showing saved springs grouped into clusters, with visited springs highlighted.

Adventure mode

For when the trail runs out.

Hot springs rarely sit at the end of a paved road. The last stretch might follow a riverbank, a faint game trail, or no trail at all. Adventure mode turns your iPhone into a direction-finding compass with a live map, so you can orient yourself and keep moving toward the water.

  • Which way to turn It tells you exactly how far to turn to face the spring, and keeps adjusting as you move.
  • A line to the water A dashed line points from you straight to the spring, even where there's no trail to follow.
  • A map that turns with you Switch to heading-up and the map rotates as you do, so what's ahead on screen is ahead of you.
Adventure mode: a terrain map with a dashed line from the hiker to a hot spring beside a river, a Turn Right 41 degrees prompt, a compass, and a readout bar showing 39.0 miles, bearing east 76 degrees, heading 34 degrees, elevation 2,322 feet, and GPS accuracy of plus or minus 48 feet.
  • Distance, live Watch the distance to the spring count down with every step.
  • Bearing and heading The spring's compass bearing, side by side with the direction you're facing.
  • Elevation and GPS accuracy Keep an eye on elevation, and know how precise your position is. That matters in canyons and forests.

Adventure mode is a companion, not a replacement for a map, good judgment, and telling someone where you're going. GPS can be imprecise in steep or wooded terrain. And tread lightly: stay on durable ground where you can, and respect closures and private land.

Remember

Remember every soak.

A place visited once becomes a story you can return to. Log each visit and keep your photos right where they belong.

  • Visits and soak timesRecord when you went and how long you stayed, and build a history of every visit.
  • Automatic visit detectionTurn it on and HotSpringer notices when you arrive at a saved spring and logs the visit for you.
  • Photos with contextPhotos taken in the app remember where you were and which way you were facing.
  • Private photosLock any photo behind a code. Locked photos are encrypted on your iPhone.
The Stats screen: 51 springs in the collection, 35 percent explored, 47 total visits, and 1,087 days adventuring, with exploration progress and visit activity below.

Watch your story take shape.

Your stats grow with every trip: progress through your own collection, soak-time records, favorite places, and achievements earned along the way.

Share

Pass a spring along, on your terms.

The best places are passed along quietly, from one person to another. HotSpringer sends a spring straight to someone you know, never to a public page, and leaves you in control of what goes with it.

  • Send springs to friends

    Send a spring as a file to someone you trust. There are no public links or profiles. You decide whether photos and notes go along, shared photos have their location data removed by default, and your visit history never goes.

  • Receive from friends

    When a friend sends you springs, open the file in HotSpringer and they join your collection, ready for your own visits, photos, and notes.

  • Back up everything

    Export a complete backup of your collection at any time, and bring it with you to a new iPhone.

Privacy first

You're the explorer, not the product.

Many apps are paid for with your data: where you go, when you go, and who you go with. That's surveillance capitalism, and HotSpringer wants no part of it.

Your hot springs are personal. Some are secret. They should stay that way.

  • No ads

    Your adventures aren't inventory. There are no ads in HotSpringer, and nothing about you is sold to advertisers.

  • No tracking

    No analytics, no tracking across apps or websites, and no data brokers watching where you soak.

  • No account

    No sign-up, no email address, no password. Open the app and start your collection.

  • Stays on your iPhone

    Springs, visits, photos, notes, and locations live on your device. We have no servers that receive them.

  • Never sold

    We never sell, rent, or share your personal information. Not to advertisers, not to anyone.

  • Your backup, your file

    Back up your whole collection to a file you keep, in Files or on your own devices. It never passes through our servers.

The fine print, in plain words

Two things do leave your iPhone. To find and fix bugs, the app sends anonymous crash reports and a small "app opened" signal. They never include your name, locations, springs, notes, or photos. And maps, drive times, and directions come from Apple. The Privacy Policy explains exactly what is shared.

This website doesn't track you either: no cookies, no analytics, and no third-party scripts.

Your next soak is waiting.

Start your collection and keep every adventure close.

Available Soon