Overheating temp needle rising to almost hot?

Hello, if you are losing that much coolant and not its leaking out from a hose or other source, then it must be going into the engine. Try this, first thing in the morning when the engine is still cold, fill it with coolant or water since youre just testing right now, but leave the radiator cap off and start the engine. Look for any bubbles coming out of the opening of the radiator. It might take a couple minutes, but if you start to see bubbles pushing out, those are combustion gases from a bad head gasket escaping into the cooling system. This is just a quick test to see if thats a potential problem. Further testing, such as doing a pressure test on the cooling system may reveal coolant getting into the cylinders with the engine off and spark plugs out.
Do not ever put cold water into a hot engine, that can cause major issues. And something else to keep in mind is the engine coolant temperature sensor (ECT) cannot read the temperature of air accurately, its designed to be in liquid for it's correct measurements, that might be why the gauge spiked once when there was only steam left in the system. Here are a couple of guides on over heating issues. Let us know what you find.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-overheating-or-running-hot

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-an-overheating-engine