Up Diamond Fork Spanish Fork
The closest hot springs to Utah Valley, and the one with the most to sort first
Fifth Water Hot Springs, and the three things nobody posts at the pools
Hot pools stepped below a waterfall at the head of Fifth Water creek, reached by about ten paved miles up Diamond Fork off US-6 and a walk of roughly two and a half miles each way. There is a trailhead fee now, these springs go under harmful algal bloom advisories you have to check on the day, the lot is small enough that the Forest Service warns about towing, and a winter gate turns the whole thing into a walk of more than twelve miles.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
Start here
Ten paved miles up a side canyon, then about two and a half on foot
Diamond Fork branches north off US-6 a short drive east of Spanish Fork, and the road up it is paved for roughly ten miles to the Three Forks trailhead. From there the walk climbs beside Sixth Water and then Fifth Water creek to a run of hot pools stepped below a waterfall. It runs about two and a half miles each way, so roughly four and a half to five miles round trip in summer.
It is the best known hot springs within easy reach of Utah Valley, and it is also the most conditional. Three separate things sit between you and the water: a trailhead fee, a seasonal health advisory on the pools, and a road gate that shuts on the snow rather than on a date. Each is set by a different body, and none of them is posted at the pools.
None of that makes it a bad trip. It makes it a trip with homework. The pools are genuinely good, the canyon is genuinely beautiful, and the walk is well within reach of most people in summer. The failure mode here is not danger; it is driving an hour to a lot with no space in it, or soaking in water that a county advisory has flagged that week.
The trip in numbers
10 miles
of paved Diamond Fork road off US-6
4.5 to 5 miles
round trip on foot, approximately
3 authorities
set the fee, the advisory and the gate
12+ miles
the same round trip once the winter gate shuts
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The fee, and the lot
There is a charge now, and a parking notice that is not decorative
Two things at Three Forks changed the arithmetic of this walk and both are the Forest Service's rather than the city's. One is a fee. The other is the size of the ground it is charged on, which is the part that actually decides whether your Saturday works.
| The question | The position at Three Forks | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Is there a fee | Yes, a per-vehicle trailhead pass | The Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest |
| How much, recently | Around $10 per vehicle for 3 days, $20 for 7 days, $60 for a season, so confirm the current amount | The Forest Service fee schedule |
| How you pay | A digital pass bought through Recreation.gov | Recreation.gov, before you leave cell service |
| Do passes work | Interagency passes are accepted | The Forest Service |
| What the parking is like | The Forest Service calls the lot very small, with ticketing and towing strongly enforced | The Forest Service |
| Where the overflow is | The Fifth Water Trailhead on Rays Valley Road, the Forest Service overflow answer | The Forest Service |
Federal recreation fees are set through a national process and can change, so treat the amounts above as recent rather than fixed and confirm the current pass before you drive out. Interagency passes, such as the America the Beautiful pass, are accepted in place of the daily fee.
The order of operations that works is: buy the pass at home, drive the canyon, and if the lot is full at Three Forks, use the Rays Valley Road approach rather than parking on a shoulder. When a trailhead page warns about towing in plain terms, read it as what actually happens on a July Saturday, not as boilerplate.
The other reason to sort the pass in advance is coverage. There is no reliable cell service at the end of ten miles of canyon road, so a digital pass bought at the trailhead is a plan rather than a purchase. Buy it while you still have a connection and screenshot the confirmation.
The water itself
These springs draw algal bloom advisories, so check the water before you go
Fifth Water Hot Springs comes under Health Watch advisories for harmful algal blooms, most often through the warm months. Utah tracks current conditions on its waters at habs.utah.gov, the state's recreational bloom page. A Health Watch is the lowest of the escalating advisory levels rather than a closure, and it is the level at which you are expected to change how you soak rather than stay away.
The Forest Service echoes the same caution on its own page for the area, and the practical instructions are consistent: dry off thoroughly after getting out, shower afterward, and avoid any visible algae rather than trying to judge it by color. Blooms are not uniform across a water body, so a clear looking pool a few feet from a cloudy one is not evidence of anything.
The important part is that this is a level, not a permanent state. Advisory levels move as samples come in through the season, so one month's answer is not the next month's, and certainly not next summer's. What is worth carrying is the tracker address and the guidance, not a verdict.
Two things circulate as posted rules at these springs and are better treated as etiquette. Pack everything out, glass included, as you would anywhere on national forest ground. And expect that some people soak without swimwear, which comes up often in visitor accounts. Check the current signage at the trailhead for anything the Forest Service actually enforces.
These springs go under harmful algal bloom advisories, and nothing at the pools will tell you the level on the day you visit. Utah tracks current conditions at habs.utah.gov, and the guidance that comes with a Health Watch, echoed by the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, is to dry off thoroughly after soaking, to shower afterward, and to keep out of any visible algae. Levels move through the season as samples are taken, and there is no sign at the trailhead or at the water that will tell you which. Check habs.utah.gov on the morning you travel, and keep animals out of water you would not get into yourself.
A federal agency sets the fee, a county health department sets the advisory, and the snow sets the gate. Three authorities and one soak, which is why the planning matters more than the walk.
What winter does to it
A gate near a campground turns a five mile walk into a thirteen mile one
The road up Diamond Fork is paved and, in summer, easy. The Forest Service closes its upper section seasonally at a winter gate near Diamond Campground, typically with the first major snowfall and typically reopening in spring, and everything about the trip changes on the day it shuts.
| Gate open | Gate closed | |
|---|---|---|
| Roughly when | Spring through to about October, snow depending | From about the first major snowfall, roughly October, until spring |
| How far you drive | About ten paved miles up Diamond Fork to Three Forks | Only as far as the gate near Diamond Campground |
| How far you walk | About 4.5 to 5 miles round trip | Add roughly 4 miles each way, so more than 12 miles round trip |
| What it becomes | A half day out with a short walk on it | A full winter day, on foot, in a canyon |
| What decides it | Snow, not the calendar | Snow, not the calendar |
| Who knows today's answer | The Spanish Fork Ranger District, on (801) 798-3571 | The Spanish Fork Ranger District, on (801) 798-3571 |
Gate timing follows the snow year rather than a set date, so treat every month named here as typical, not fixed, and call the Spanish Fork Ranger District before a late fall or early spring attempt. A soak in a winter canyon on a twelve mile round trip is a different proposition from the summer walk and should be planned as one.
Where it ranks
Third on the list
Behind the temple and the July week, and the entry explains why the best known outing here is not the most reliable one.
The ranked listThe road it hangs off
The canyon corridor
US-6 is the artery this side canyon opens from, and it is in the middle of a large safety and widening program.
Read the pageThe other seasonal road
The Nebo Loop
The valley's other gated mountain road, which shuts in late October and often does not fully reopen until June.
Read the guideWhere this sits
Outside the city entirely, up a side canyon off the road east
The springs sit outside Spanish Fork, up a side canyon off the road east, but everything about reaching them starts in town: the pass, the parking plan and the winter math. Here is what waits back down the canyon.
At the canyon mouth
The Spanish Fork Wind Park
The nine turbines you pass on the way in and out, and the reason a wind farm was built on flat ground.
Read the pageBack in town
Fiesta Days
The rodeo week in the back half of July, and the county fair that takes the same ground nine days behind it.
Read the pageThe companion
Spanish Fork, in full
More of the canyon mouth city, from the temple on the south bench to the road east.
Read the pageKeep reading
More of Spanish Fork on The Local
Things to do
The top 11, ranked
Eleven entries, each with the body that runs it, its season and what it charges.
Read the guideOpen every day
The Krishna Temple
Rajasthani stonework, a llama paddock, a daily buffet, and doors open every day of the year.
Read the guideNine turbines
The Spanish Fork Wind Park
Nine turbines at a canyon mouth, sited on the wind an east bench street lives with.
Read the guideThe back half of July
Fiesta Days
Five rodeo nights, a Pioneer Day parade at nine, and a county fair a week behind it.
Read the guideMoving here
The canyon corridor
The wind, the widening on US-6, the city owned wires, and where the growth is going.
Read the guideThe companion
Spanish Fork, in full
The temple, the springs, the turbines, the rodeo week and the road east, gathered on one page.
Read the pageQuick answers
The springs, answered
Yes. The Three Forks trailhead charges a per-vehicle fee on a sliding scale by length of stay: three days, a week, or a season. You pay it as a digital pass through Recreation.gov, and interagency passes are accepted. Confirm the current amount before you drive out, and buy the pass before you leave cell service, because there is none at the trailhead.
It is not closed. These springs come under Health Watch advisories for harmful algal blooms, most often through the warm months. A Health Watch is the lowest advisory level rather than a closure, and it asks you to change how you soak: dry off well afterward, shower when you can, and stay out of any visible algae. Utah tracks current conditions at habs.utah.gov, and because levels move as samples come in, check that page for the day you are going.
Roughly four and a half to five miles round trip from the Three Forks trailhead, about two and a half miles each way, following Sixth Water and then Fifth Water creek up to the pools and the waterfall. In winter, with the upper road gate shut, add about four miles each way, which turns it into more than twelve miles round trip.
At the Three Forks trailhead, about ten paved miles up Diamond Fork Road from US-6. The lot is small, and the Forest Service enforces ticketing and towing there, so its own overflow answer is the Fifth Water Trailhead on Rays Valley Road, which comes in from a different direction. On a summer Saturday the parking, rather than the walk or the fee, is the thing most likely to end the trip.
Yes, on foot and at some length. Diamond Fork Road is paved for about ten miles, but the Forest Service closes the upper section at a winter gate near Diamond Campground, usually with the first heavy snow around October and reopening in spring. With the gate shut you park there and walk, which adds roughly four miles each way and turns a five mile round trip into more than twelve. Gate timing follows the snow year, so call the Spanish Fork Ranger District at (801) 798-3571.
A short drive east on US-6 to the Diamond Fork turnoff, then about ten paved miles up the side canyon to the Three Forks trailhead, then the walk. Diamond Fork branches north off US-6, the highway climbing out of Spanish Fork Canyon toward Soldier Summit, so the whole approach runs through the corridor this city sits at the mouth of. It is the closest well known hot spring to Utah Valley, which is exactly why its parking lot fills the way it does.
Treat both as etiquette rather than as posted, enforced policy. Pack everything out, glass included, as you would anywhere on national forest ground. And expect that some people soak without swimwear, which comes up often in visitor accounts. Check the current signage at the trailhead for anything official before you rely on it.
No. The springs are on Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest ground up Diamond Fork, reached off US-6, and the Forest Service rather than the city sets everything about them: the fee, the parking rules and the seasonal road gate. Spanish Fork is simply the town you drive out of to reach them, at the mouth of the canyon the whole approach runs through.
Four things, in this order. The current advisory level at habs.utah.gov, because that decides whether anyone should be getting in. Your Recreation.gov pass, bought while you still have signal. The gate status with the Spanish Fork Ranger District at (801) 798-3571 if it is anywhere near winter. And a fallback parking plan, because the Three Forks lot is small, the towing is real, and the overflow answer is the Rays Valley Road approach.
Ten miles of canyon road, and three separate authorities to check
This is a walk you can do on a Saturday if you sort four things first. Living at the bottom of the road that leads to it is a different set of questions: what the widening program on US-6 will do to that drive in the years ahead, how the wind at the canyon mouth behaves on a particular street, whether an address on the east bench is inside city limits or carrying a Spanish Fork postal address in county jurisdiction, and where the growth front is actually moving. Tell me what you are weighing and I will put you with a Utah County partner agent who works the south end of this valley, and stay on the file for the financing side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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