Nanitch βΊ All spots βΊ Hot springs in New Mexico
New Mexico's hot springs are concentrated in the Jemez and the Gila, and they are among the best-known undeveloped soaks in the American Southwest. Read the legal section on this page properly before you go β New Mexico's statute is worded differently from its neighbours' and the difference is not academic.
Open the map for New Mexico β
New Mexico's statute is NMSA Β§ 30-9-14 β it covers “knowingly and intentionally exposing his primary genital area to public view” β with no lewdness element, no intent-to-arouse element and no affront-or-alarm element anywhere in it.
Read plainly, that does reach ordinary nudity in public view. New Mexico is materially stricter on paper than Oregon, Washington or California, whose statutes all require lewd intent or an affront-and-alarm element that plain nakedness does not supply. How much that bites in practice varies enormously with how public a spot actually is and with what the land manager permits β so treat the remoteness of a place as a fact about the drive, not as a legal opinion.
That is not the same as “it's legal here.” Counties and cities legislate separately, and whoever manages the ground β State Parks, the Forest Service, BLM, a county, a private owner β sets its own rules on top. Check the land manager for the spot you're actually going to.
Nanitch is a map, not a law firm, and none of this is legal advice. Rules change and enforcement is local β if it matters, check with the agency that manages the land before you go. Statute last read August 2026.
These have a page here because somebody has been to them: curated by Nanitch, confirmed by a member, or written up with real access notes.
Named hot springs imported from OpenStreetMap that nobody has confirmed yet. They are on the map and in the app, and they get a page here the moment someone reports back from one β not before. Listing every one of them:
A further 1 hot springs in New Mexico are on the map with no name of their own β OpenStreetMap records them only as “hot spring”. They are on the map; there is nothing to call them by here.