Castle Hot Springs – The Desert Resort Where Presidents Came To Heal

About 50 miles northwest of Phoenix, at the end of a rutted dirt road, sits a resort that's been pulling people out of their routines since 1896. Castle Hot Springs was Arizona's first wellness retreat, and its early guest book reads like a Gilded Age roll call – the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Astors, a sitting president.

During World War II the property became a convalescent hospital for wounded servicemen, and one of them, a young naval officer recovering from the sinking of his boat in the Pacific, later became president himself. A fire in 1976 and decades of closure nearly erased the place, but a full restoration brought it back in 2019 – springs, working farm and all.

Deep In The Bradshaw Mountains

The final 16 kilometers (10 miles) of the drive north from the Phoenix airport run along a dusty, boulder-strewn road that can turn to rushing water in minutes during summer monsoons. Wild burros wander the roadside – descendants of pack animals turned loose when the local gold and copper mines went bust in the 1890s – and steep canyons are thick with saguaro, the cactus whose oddly humanlike arm positions make it hard not to read personalities into them.

The road eventually opens onto a lemon-yellow Main Lodge that feels closer to a stagecoach-era waystation than a modern hotel, with a scatter of mid-century-style bungalows tucked in around it.

The land belongs to the Bradshaw Mountains, a range running roughly 64 kilometers (40 miles) north to south and named for prospector William D. Bradshaw, one of the many gold-seekers who flooded the area in the mid-1800s.

Much of the range now sits inside Prescott National Forest, established in 1908 and covering about 506,000 hectares (1.25 million acres) with roughly 1,529 kilometers (950 miles) of trails. The resort has direct access to five of them – Agave, Castle Peak, Chocolate Drop, Salvation Peak and Yavapai trails – covering about 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) and passing Wells Fargo Cave and Crater Canyon along the way. With almost no light pollution out here, it's also a solid spot for stargazing, springs or no springs.

A Resort That Burned Down And Waited Fifty Years To Reopen

The Yavapai were soaking in these waters long before anyone else arrived, treating them as a source of healing and reportedly working to keep their location quiet. Settlers eventually stumbled onto the springs during the land speculation that followed the Civil War, and one prospector, Thomas Mann, built a basic boarding house nearby to draw in travelers.

The site's fortunes changed in the 1890s when mining magnate Frank M. Murphy bought the property, built a dedicated rail spur and road to ferry visitors in from Hot Springs Junction, and opened the resort in 1896 under the name Castle Hot Springs – borrowed from rock formations in the surrounding landscape that resemble castle parapets.

Word of the water's restorative reputation spread quickly among America's industrial families. The Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Astors all made the trip, along with novelist Zane Grey, painter Maxfield Parrish and director Cecil B. DeMille. Arizona's territorial governor at the time, Nathan Oakes Murphy – Frank's brother – reportedly moved the territorial capital here whenever he visited.

Theodore Roosevelt stayed in 1911 while in the area for the dedication of the dam that now carries his name. Through the following decades, under later owner Walter Rounsevell, the resort expanded its horseback riding program, sending visitors out into the desert alongside the cattle wranglers who worked neighboring ranches.

Everything changed with World War II. The U.S. military leased the property from 1943 to 1944, turning it into a rehabilitation center for wounded servicemen. Among them was a young John F. Kennedy, recovering from the sinking of PT-109. He later wrote to a nurse he'd met during that period, a letter postmarked February 17, 1945, and it's still kept in the resort's history room today.

Business returned to normal after the war, but a fire destroyed the historic Palm House in 1976, another took the Wrigley Cottage two decades later, and the resort sat mostly empty for the better part of 40 years. An Arizona couple bought the property in 2014 and spent five years restoring it, right down to reconfiguring the original masonry, before reopening in 2019.

The resort is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and belongs to Historic Hotels of America.

Dinner, Built Around Whatever The Farm Picked That Morning

The kitchen at Harvest, the resort's restaurant, is run by executive chef Chris Knouse, who works alongside third-generation Arizona agronomist Ian Beger on a three-acre on-site farm growing more than 300 varieties of fruit, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.

The nightly five-course tasting menu shifts with whatever the farm produces that week. Breakfast leans on citrus and herbal drinks, fresh fruit and vegetables straight from the farm, local proteins, and pastries; lunch brings out hummus and vegetable platters, salads and brick-oven pizza.

Bar 1896, the resort's lounge, builds its cocktails and mocktails around the same herbs, fruits, vegetables and spices from the farm, with indoor and outdoor seating that looks out over the canyon.

The wine program has picked up four consecutive Wine Spectator Award of Excellence wins between 2023 and 2026, with a cellar of roughly 7,150 bottles across more than 720 labels, curated by sommelier Sarah Foote. Breakfast, lunch and a multi-course dinner are part of every stay, along with bar bites and food served poolside.

Bungalows, Cabins And Two Historic Suites

The 31 accommodations split into four categories: 17 Sky View Cabins, 12 Spring Bungalows, and two one-off suites – the Historic Cottage and Top of the Lodge. All share a similar design language: Southwest-inspired textiles, custom ironwork and stonework that echoes the property's original architecture.

The Historic Cottage sits on a hillside above the main grounds, in a building that's nearly a century old and once housed the Roosevelt, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt families during their visits. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, sleeps six across a king, a queen and a room with either a king or two twins, and comes with a living room built around a stone fireplace, a wet bar, and a covered deck overlooking the canyon, the Lodge and the Bradshaw Mountains.

Top of the Lodge occupies the uppermost floor of the Main Lodge – three bedrooms, four bathrooms, the same king/queen/king-or-twins layout sleeping six, and a wraparound deck with views over the pool and the desert beyond.

Sky View Cabins

The 17 Sky View Cabins sit on raised platforms with views over the grounds and desert.

The standard cabin has a king bed, the flexible version swaps in two twins, and a premium upgrade adds either a cedar soaking tub and fire pit or an outdoor soaking tub with a seating area and fire pit.

All three configurations sleep two, run about 35 square meters (378 square feet), and open onto a private viewing deck built for stargazing, along with their own outdoor soaking tub and shower.

Spring Bungalows

The 12 Spring Bungalows are built around a stone soaking tub filled with natural spring water, set near a creek that runs down the hillside past swaying palms.

Each is about 53 square meters (575 square feet), sleeps two in a king bed, and includes indoor and outdoor fireplaces plus a covered patio with lounge seating for year-round use.

The Spa Menu

Treatments here are built around the property's mineral water and the botanicals growing around it. The signature offering is Watsu Therapy, a water-based bodywork session where a practitioner supports your body in the water and guides you through slow, rhythmic stretches to release tension.

A newer addition is Healing Waters Qigong, alongside a broader menu of treatments that combine spring water with botanical ingredients. There's also a contrast soaking circuit on offer – a warm soak alternated with a plunge into cold water.

The resort's wellness team frames the whole approach around syncing with the desert's own rhythms of light, temperature and season rather than working against them.

Starting The Day With Yoga

Two styles are offered daily: a gentle, therapeutic class built around stretching, breathing and relaxation, and a more active Seasonal Flow class that works through the major muscle groups. Guided sound bath meditation sessions round out the morning lineup if you'd rather start with stillness than movement.

Four Pools, Four Temperatures

The water that feeds the resort's pools starts as rain, seeps underground, and travels through streams deep into the earth before rising back to the surface warmed and mineral-rich – a round trip that takes roughly 12,000 years. It carries lithium, magnesium, iron, sodium, calcium and bicarbonates, and because it's heated by hot rock rather than volcanic activity, it doesn't carry the sulfur smell common to a lot of hot springs.

The water surfaces highest on the property and cascades downhill into four pools, each a little cooler than the last, at a combined flow of roughly 757,000 liters (200,000 gallons) a day. Unlike most hot spring pools, which sit on concrete, these have kept their natural floor. Access is limited to overnight guests, and the springs stay open through the night for anyone who wants to soak under the stars.

First Pool

Closest to where the water surfaces, and the hottest of the four at around 40-42°C (104-108°F), with a depth of about 1 meter (3.5 feet). It's more a spot to ease in and linger than to swim, with waterfalls nearby and mineral-streaked rock walls around it.

The water cools slightly here, to around 37-39°C (98-102°F), at a depth of roughly 1.2 meters (4 feet). This is the one built for longer soaks and floating, with a natural desert floor underfoot and views up the canyon.

The largest and deepest of the four, ringed with palm trees, where the temperature drops to somewhere between 24°C and 32°C (75-90°F) and the water reaches about 2.7 meters (9 feet) deep. It's built more for swimming than soaking, and it's also where seasonal paddleboard yoga classes take place – a session that tests your balance as much as your flexibility.

Set inside a small grotto, this is where Watsu Therapy takes place – a private, appointment-based session where a practitioner supports you in the water and moves you through slow, rhythmic stretches designed to release tension.

More To Do Than You'll Fit Into One Stay

A long list of activities comes included with a stay: guided hikes led by the resort's adventure guides, an archery range for all skill levels, two pickleball courts, lawn games (bocce, chip-and-putt, disc golf, giant Jenga, cornhole), cruiser bikes for getting around the grounds, guided tours of the farm and the surrounding landscaping, a walking history tour covering the resort's past, a screening of the property's Emmy-winning documentary, and mindfulness sessions where you make a small keepsake – a mandala, a body scrub, depending on the day.

There's also a custom-built axe-throwing range set in the shade of an old salt cedar tree. Beyond what's included, add-on adventures round things out: e-biking through the desert foothills, seasonal horseback riding, rock climbing, a zipline course and rappelling.

UTV Tour

A guided UTV Adventure Tour is available as one of the resort's paid add-ons for exploring the surrounding desert terrain.

Sonoran Aerial Walkway

Part of the resort's via ferrata program – the first of its kind in Arizona – is the Sonoran Aerial Walkway, a suspension bridge strung across Castle Creek Canyon at around 30 meters (100 feet) high and spanning roughly 61 meters (200 feet) end to end.

Via ferrata, a climbing style that originated in Europe in the late 1800s, translates to "the iron way": climbers clip into a steel safety cable anchored to the rock and use fixed metal rungs to work their way up and across, rather than relying on traditional climbing gear. The resort runs three different via ferrata routes in addition to the walkway crossing.