Jordan Hot Springs, Hot spring in the Golden Trout Wilderness, Tulare County, California

Jordan Hot Springs is a system of at least fourteen thermal springs in the Golden Trout Wilderness of Inyo National Forest. Water emerges at 120°F and flows into Nine Mile Creek, cooling in rock-walled soaking pools that average 104°F, with cooler pools at 94°F. A small two-foot-deep concrete-lined pool also exists, and ruins of an early 20th-century resort camp stand nearby.

John Jordan, a Texan who settled in Tulare County in 1857, blazed a trail to the springs in 1861 and petitioned to build a toll road called the Jordan Trail. He drowned in the Kern River the following year. In the late 19th century log cabins and a logging camp were built, and in 1992 the springs received National Historic Landmark status.

The springs lie in the Golden Trout Wilderness, where local Indigenous people used them and the surrounding land as a summer encampment for centuries before European contact. The pools are primitive rock-walled basins beside Nine Mile Creek, and the small concrete-lined pool is a later addition. The name comes from John Jordan, the Texan who blazed the Jordan Trail to the springs in 1861.

Access requires a demanding hike of at least six miles from a nearby trailhead through rugged terrain. Visitors should prepare for variable conditions since the route passes through different elevations and changing weather patterns.

Each pool maintains a slightly different temperature, allowing swimmers to choose between varying heat levels. These natural temperature differences arise from the varying distances between each pool and the underground heat sources.