Sierra Hot Springs resort melts your bones and your mind

November 24, 9:03 AMSF Global Getaways ExaminerLisa Alpine

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Soaking my bones in hot mineral water coming right out of the earth is THE best way to download stress. Throw in an expansive view through pungent, sweet-scented ponderosa pine and cedar forests across a sage-covered alpine meadow in the high Sierra and voila! After a weekend being a hot spring lounge lizard, I am back to center – back to appreciating life.

Where are these magical springs? At Sierra Hot Springs, just a 3-hour drive from the San Francisco Bay Area. Highway 80 passes through Truckee and then it is another 30 minutes on winding Highway 89 to Sierraville where the springs are located.

At the junction of highways 49 and 89, I turn onto a bumpy dirt road and follow the make-shift signs for the hot springs. I’ve arrived in the middle of the night and head straight to the bathes. Coyotes howl and the faint aroma of sulfur taints the air. The sound of water splashing, gurgling, tumbling into the cold plunge from pipes that come right out of the hillside are the symphony that fills the dome-temple where one of the main springs is housed. Long, licking candle flames reflect eerily on the dome’s ceiling. Inviting curls of steam dance on the surface of the large rock-lined pool. An imposing flower-wreathed statue of Buddha watches me. The bottom of the pool is sand and the hot springs bubble up around my feet. It is extremely hot.

After royally shocking my body with extreme temperature, I float in the outdoor swimming pool. An immense star canopy reflects diamonds in the water. Coyotes continue to carouse in the distance. I stay till sunrise, then lay my sleeping bag out in the forest and sleep a restful sleep for a few hours.

The main lodge is a 15-minute walk from the baths and the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee lures me up the wide, wooden front steps. The lodge has a low-key atmosphere with a big stone fireplace to read in front of on one of the many over-stuffed couches crowding the living area.

I cook lunch in the community kitchen and enjoy a leisurely repast on the old-fashioned verandah. Spread out before me is an expansive panorama of distant volcano crowns ringing the valley which once was a prehistoric lake. They are the geological origins of the hot aquifer that runs under the property and are the tail of end of the Cascades coming down from Oregon.

Calves frolic in the meadow across the road. Nearby, a row of lanky cottonwood trees sing a loose-leafed choir in the wind.

The original lodge was built during the Civil War in 1863. Jack Campbell, then sheriff of Sierraville, bought it but was killed in a gunfight. It was then run as a spa and people from all over the world traveled by train to Truckee and then stagecoach to the resort to “take the waters.”

During the Gold Rush the valley was settled by Swiss Italian immigrants who provided fodder for pack animals and dairy products to the miners out of Downieville. Many descendants of these immigrants still own ranches in the area.

A Mafioso owned the resort from the 1920s to 1950s. It was a speakeasy and bordello for the Reno crowd. It was quite funky and run down by the time Leonard Orr, father of the rebirthing process, purchased it in the 1970s. Harbin Hot Springs now owns it and has done many aesthetic improvements to upgrade and develop the lodge, restaurant, and baths.

There are many developed springs on the secluded 600 acres. Some are just a claw-foot tub with crystal clear hot water pouring into and spilling over the sides. Others, such as the 101-degree Medicine Bath, is a natural stone pool set in the forest with flower gardens and copulas to rest in. About a half-mile from the lodge in the other direction are the Healing Waters pools, temple (the dome) and swimming pool, with temperatures ranging from 98 to 115. The chemical properties of the water include lithium, sulfur and silica.

I return to the Bay Area after two days of soaking, hiking, reading, and chatting with guests around the fireplace. My muscles and my mind are relaxed. It works every time!

Details, details . . .

Sierra Hot Springs is open hear-round. They offer camping and hotel rooms. There is also a good  restaurant on site. For more directions and rates...