Located near Mammoth Lakes, Crab Cooker Hot Springs is one of several hot water springs in the area that are suitable for soaking in. The pool consists of a manmade cement tub with water piped in from a mineral spring about 30 feet away. Though the water at the source is too hot to bathe in, or even to touch, the tub has been outfitted with a valve that allows for the control of hot water.

Crab cooker is located on land that is owned by the LA Department of Water and Power, which forbids camping. However, camping is permitted on nearby public land. 


Crab Cooker Hotsprings - Dispersed Camping

Camped in August.  Busy little spot for dispersed camping. Tents and vans were there. Views on one side are mountains. Views on the other are rolling fields / foothills with lots of cutie vocal Moo Moos and Alkali Lake! You can see other hot springs in the distance. No shade. Lots of flies and red ants. Found this spot just driving side roads off of Benton Crossing Rd which is off the 395. Amazing sunsets and sunrises. The crab cooker hot spring was a little confusing to find. Once you find it... it’s TINY. 3 people comfortably. And HOT HOT HOTTTT! 

Sleep with the Cows 

Rocking road coming in but worth it for the view.  About 8 spots at the end of the dirt road. Only one bar of service. It would be hard to access with anything thing over 22ft. 

Hot spring with Mountain View’s!

4x4 or high clearance coming in. Long dirt road with dips and rocks. Water only flowing in winter months. Lots of tent camping spots along with 8  back in spots. Really amazing views 360 degrees. No service with Verizon. 

Private hotspring with mountain  views

Got here early in the afternoon to find a group of friendly folks repairing the pipe that fills the man-made tub. 

Apparently it had recently broken and caused the pool to cool down so much that it was growing all sort of funky stuff. 

They repaired the pipe and cleaned up the pool, but informed me it would need at least one overnight cycle to cool off enough to be enjoyable. 

Sure enough, I went down and could barely leave my fingers in for much more than five seconds. 

So, I gave it a quick stir (see video) and moved on over to Shepherd's Hot Spring just over the hill! 

Super Cool, But Too Hot To Handle!

Beautiful Spot

Super cool spot. We set up our tents with a view of the hot springs. The hot spring was kind of broken when we were there so that was a bummer, but you could hike out to the slightly muddy creek for some hot water. Beautiful area, and hopefully the other guys staying there fixed the hot spring by now, they were working on it:)

Great vibes, great views

I went here solo camping with my dog in may 2021. Great little spot. Pretty busy on the weekends though. It was also crazy windy which I think cooled off the hot spring a bit. 

Amazing views

I camped here in October and there was only a small handful of people here. Nice open area with views of the mountains. Watch out if it's windy because there isn't much covering.

Great spot!

Decided to camp out for a couple days after work, didn’t get there til 3am and apparently missed a huge rainstorm by a couple hours. Needless to say we had the hot springs to ourselves the majority of the trip, parking at the edge of the dirt road with only one other car in sight , which I was told was super lucky. Woke up to the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. The moon was bright but still being able to sit back and watch the stars in a hot spring in the middle of the night was unreal. Not to mention the friendly cows who came to say hello and decided to hang out.

Absolute bliss

Was able to easily find this spot using directions from this app. We came on Labor Day weekend, Sunday and easily found a spot. It was right off the main road so not the best spot but it was perfect for the night. The hot spring was awesome and so many stars at night!

Easy to find

We didn’t want to take our camper and trailer combo down the side road to the hot springs but it was only a short bike ride.  We camped in a wide spot on the road, but only 2 cars went by.  It was late March and we woke up to snow. There are many nooks to camp in, but some of the side roads are narrow and rutted.