Boiling Springs Cabin

The meadow on the Middle Fork

The cabin stands in an open meadow with little shade, at 4,025 feet. The valley is narrow. The cabin sits between a hot spring, a stream, and the Middle Fork Payette River, under steep mountains thick with conifers. The mineral springs are next to the cabin, and a few others lie within reach. The Boise National Forest says the pools hold very little silt and algae. The cabin area is open to the public, and the reservation listing warns that there is sometimes a great deal of foot traffic past the door.

Ospreys nest along the river, and elk and deer graze its banks. Bald eagles, hawks, quail, and waterfowl also live in the valley. Anglers fish the Middle Fork for rainbow and bull trout. Parts of the river are run by raft, canoe, and kayak, and parts are used for swimming. Hunters go after big game in the surrounding mountains. The Middle Fork Payette River / Wet Foot Trailhead is close by. It has a hitching rack and serves the Middle Fork Payette River (#033), Wet Foot (#441), and Skunk Creek-Wet Foot (#041) trails. Horses are kept at a dispersed camping area across the river to the southeast, since livestock is not allowed at the cabin.

Two rooms, a wood stove, a hand pump

The front room holds a couch, a table and chairs, a sink, a propane cook range, and a wood stove. Recreation.gov also lists a propane refrigerator. Some dishes, pots, and pans are on hand. The two listings describe the sleeping room differently. Recreation.gov gives one bedroom with its own wood stove and three rustic single beds, one with a trundle, for five people. The Forest Service page describes a two-room cabin with a double bed and three singles that sleeps six on four beds and a couch, though it too sets the maximum at five. There is no electricity, so guests bring their own lights, bedding, and pillows. Recreation.gov suggests padding for the beds.

A hand pump outside gives drinking water in summer only. Recreation.gov says the water shuts off in mid-September. From October 15 through December 31 the forest supplies firewood, which may need splitting, and guests bring their own axe. Outside are a vault toilet, a picnic table, and a campfire ring. Tents and trailers go to Boiling Springs Campground nearby, and in summer there are camp hosts there and at Trail Creek Campground.

Twenty-four miles of Road 698

From Boise the way runs north on State Highway 55 to Banks, east on the Banks-Lowman Road, and left at the sign for Crouch. From Crouch, Forest Road 698 follows the Middle Fork north about 24 miles to the cabin. A longer summer route of 38 miles leaves 698 at Trail Creek Campground, takes Road 671 toward Silver Creek Plunge, then Road 678 for the last seven miles. The Forest Service gives the season as generally May through December, and says access may be difficult in fall and late winter.

In winter all travel is over snow. The plowed road ends 13 miles up 698, just north of Tie Creek Campground, and the last 11 miles go by snowmobile on groomed trails also used by snowshoers and skiers. The forest warns that this trail can be hard to follow and very strenuous in some snow, and that a party should be ready to camp out overnight on the way.

A guard station from 1935

The University of Idaho Library’s collection on the Civilian Conservation Corps in Idaho includes the building in its list of structures, under the name Boiling Springs Guard Station. The collection gives the year as 1935, the nearest town as Crouch, and the present name as Boiling Springs Rental Cabin.