DESERT BLOOM
Surprising Arizona’s picturesque resorts
When a young John F. Kennedy came to Castle Hot Springs in the late 1940s, the Peoria, AZ, spa had already been open for nearly 50 years. Kennedy was flown in by helicopter to the ancient therapeutic hot spring to heal from his war injuries – an early tradition that was first started by local Apache and Yavapai Native American warriors who also came here to heal after fighting.
By Kennedy’s time, the resort was already known as a watering hole for families like the Vanderbilts, Pews, Cabots, Astors, Wrigleys and Roosevelts. It is considered the “dowager” resort of Arizona – the first of a glittering chain of posh oases that were created, initially for wellheeled patients with tuberculosis and other lung issues and then later just catering to wealthy clientele who came for the beauty of the Sonoran desert and the climate of constant sunshine it offered.
Castle Hot Springs has newly reopened (in late 2019) after several large fires consumed some of its older buildings and made a renaissance and reset a needed boost to bring the first health resort of Arizona back to vibrant life.
Like the desert itself after a drenching rain, the resort has been lovingly restored by its new owners (a philanthropic family from the Phoenix area) who sought to pay homage to the historical buildings and makeup of the resort rather than to recreate it in its vintage form.
Design is desert chic with curated touches like authentic Navaho rugs, in-room gas-fueled fireplaces and
stone tubs in al fresco bathrooms that fill with mineralrich spring water at the touch of a tap.
The resort is also home to a culinary duo of Christopher Brugman and Ian Beger, executive chef and resident agronimist respectively. Brugman (Desert Mountain Club, Manhattan Beach Post) and Beger have been brought in to create an inclusive (yes, inclusive) food and beverage experience that sources about 80 percent of the resort’s menu from local herbs, vegetables and flowers, all grown organically or bio-sustainably.
Diners are treated to pizza with herbs freshly culled from the garden behind the Italian-made pizza ovens and they can even pick their own tomatoes from a massive tomato greenhouse just beyond reception and the intimate restaurant venue.
The hot springs themselves, however are the star here. Fed by a huge cistern formed by the displacement of tertiary volcanic rock, the underground reservoir holds 200,000 gallons of water heated to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest temperature known for a spring that doesn’t rely on volcanic activity for its energy.
Guests walk up a desert path to the springs’ natural location in the rocky Bradshaw Mountains where three pools await: The closest to the source, where sparkling hot water – infused with minerals like lithium – falls over rainbow-colored rocks to a smaller, cooler pool adjacent and a lower, deeper pool below.
The area is fringed with protected Saguaro cactus, aged succulents that can live to be over 200 years old. The resort also offers spa treatments in billowing white tents around the springs themselves, where the only thing you hear as you have your modern stresses massaged away is the sound of the healing waters from this ancient spring falling over the rocks.
The new owner stresses that he’s left the pools as they were when the resort was first opened in the 1890s – with a natural sand floor on the pool’s bottom “to let bathers be as close to the original source as possible.” castlehotsprings.com
PHOENIX RISING
The renaissance of Castle Hot Springs is just one of the highlights to be found among a bevy of health and wellness resorts in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, a short drive away from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Many of these five-star resorts have recently completed multi-million dollar refurbishments and enhancements. The added luster contributes mightily to the welldeserved reputation that Arizona – and the Phoenix/ Scottsdale area in particular – have as a haven for