British Columbia · Natural setting
Atlin Warm Springs
The Atlin area has a documented warm-spring source in the far north of British Columbia. It sits within a broad landscape of lakes and mountains near the Yukon boundary.
Historical source coordinate; not a trailhead. Accuracy and datum have not been independently verified. Historical water readings describe source samples, not safe soaking temperatures.
Warm, not hot — and that is the point
Atlin is a warm spring rather than a hot one, and expecting otherwise is the most common disappointment here. The main pool is shallow, around a metre deep, and sits at roughly 29 °C — pleasant in a meadow on a northern summer day, not a hot soak.
The site is a complex of geothermally warmed pools and their outlet streams, fed by warm groundwater rising in a meadow, with the overflow running down toward Warm Bay on Atlin Lake. It lies in far northern British Columbia close to the Yukon border.
Taku River Tlingit territory
The warm springs complex is within the territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, who have been actively involved in monitoring the site — including documenting what has turned up in the water.
Visit it as a stewarded place. The meadow setting is fragile and the pools are shallow; the damage a careless visitor can do here is disproportionate to the size of the site.
Goldfish, shrimp, and a fish found nowhere else
Atlin has an unusual ecological problem. Non-native species have been found living in the warm water, including freshwater shrimp and goldfish — almost certainly released by people — and the story drew national coverage.
That matters because the springs support the Atlin Warm Springs lake chub, a fish whose listing under the federal Species at Risk Act has been the subject of public consultation. A thermally stable pocket of water in the far north is exactly the kind of habitat where a unique population can evolve and also exactly the kind that introduced species can wreck. Do not move water, fish or plants between pools, and never release anything into them.
Opening hours & season
No verified visitor timetable
Access depends on land-manager permission, closures and local conditions. No published timetable should be interpreted as 24-hour access.
All times are local to the spring. Checked 2026-10-01; this is not a live opening-status display. Closure notices override regular hours.
Our take
An interesting northern spring to include in trip research, but the historical record alone cannot establish present-day bathing access or facilities.
Editorial assessment based on published information. No firsthand visit or customer score is implied.
Before you go
Sources & record notes
Geoscience BC’s 2016 compilation · 2 historical sampling records · Source name: Atlin. References recorded in the dataset: Grasby 2000; Crandaall & Sadlier Brown 1997.
Source notes: Coordinates from Woodsworth (unpub. Notes)
Sources used for this guide
- Government of Canada — Atlin Warm Springs lake chub, SARA listing consultation
- CBC News — unexpected things lurk in the warm springs at Atlin
- Hot Springs of BC — Atlin Warm Springs
Written from the published sources above. Operator hours, access rules and closures change; the official link is authoritative.