Harbin Hot Springs

Been Here?

Located just north of Napa Valley, Harbin Hot Springs is clearly a switch from the trendy wine and dine culture right below. It’s the essence of northern California rustic, retaining a distinct bond to the attitudes and culture of the early ’70s when the Heart Consciousness Church revived this choice site. They purposed to create a community that nurtured an alternative lifestyle, and thirty-five years later, the community is well and thriving! It offers 1700 acres of wooded grounds, five mineral water pools, hiking trails, a health food store, a restaurant, campgrounds, lodges, and many types of therapeutic massage. Modern amenities are few, and the four-mile hike to the nearest town clearly signals a retreat from civilization. Best of all, most of the Harbin Hot Springs facilities are clothing-optional, offering the luxury of leaving behind even the most basic constraints of the real world.

The hills dance with tiny springs bubbling up, and it’s of course the water that makes Harbin Hot Springs. Centuries ago, Native Americans considered them as sacred and healing. Today, seven of the springs are used to maintain five mineral water pools at various temperatures. Two hot springs feed the hot/warm pool complex; four cold springs feed the other pools, and one warm arsenic spring (with only a trace of the mineral) flows into the tiny footbath beside the warm pool.

The baths were first developed around 1860 by Matt Harbin, one of the survivors of the Donner Party. After a decline in the 1950’s, Harbin was largely abandoned until the early 1970’s. Currently the Hot Springs are cared for by over 150 residents with a rich variety of talents and skills. Certified therapists offer massage, watsu, and pampering spa treatment. There are yoga classes, New Age conferences on topics from raw food to tantric yoga, weekly dances, music events and workshops. The restaurant serves breakfast and dinner daily the guest kitchen is available for self-catering, and the garden, market, and café round out Harbin as a universe unto itself.

For a day pass, a weekend, or a week, you can combine the best of Harbin into a pace that spells deep relaxation. Wake up early and look out the lodge window on a collection of pools and decks and greenery. Walk a warm, wooded trail before breakfast. Soak in deep, quiet pools of hot water flowing up out of the earth, then switch to a cold water swim. After lunch, soak up the sun on a large wooden deck. A massage before dinner and a sauna before bed. Jobs, cars, television, bills, and grocery shopping all seem terribly remote. But the part of the brain that creates memories is working overtime, trying to soak it all in. Harbin is truly a place apart.

Find out more at their website:
Harbin.org
18424 Harbin Springs Anx, Middletown, CA
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