Wilbur Hot Springs

Been Here?

“Time to REALLY Smell the Flowers”

If you’d like to take the kind of break from real life that Oprah gives herself, Wilbur Hot Springs might just be your style. The setting is a natural hot mineral spring, a turn of the century hotel, and 1800 acres of private nature reserve. The overwhelming theme is tranquility; giving meaning to the word “quietude.” Located in Northern California’s costal range, the resort is less than three hours northeast of San Francisco and less than two hours north of the Sacramento Airport.

Sheltered by a bathhouse that overlooks Wilbur Creek, the mineral waters flow into three long channels, supplying the baths with waters at temperatures ranging from 98 to 109 degrees, and emanating a background smell of sulfur to remind you that you’re bathing in mineral-rich springs. Clothing is optional in the bathing area, although required everywhere else on the property. The ultimate relaxation on a cool summer evening starts with a soak in the hot springs of the bath house, followed by a splash in the large, cool-water mineral pool, and finally a spell in the outdoor hot mineral sitting pool with the vistas of green and gold on surrounding hills as a backdrop. If your body and soul are still not relaxed enough for sleep, the dry sauna offers a finishing touch. For a daytime ritual, alternate plunges into the cold pool with sunbathing on the sweeping deck, tuning your ear to the ripple of Wilbur Creek.

It’s the kind of place where even cooking looks relaxing. The huge communal kitchen has a beautiful wooden island, shiny pots and pans line the walls, and it’s so clean that you only dare enter in your stocking feet. It bids you to create a worthy meal to be partaken by candlelight in the Great Room, in the smaller, more intimate dining room, or outside on the screened veranda.

The history of Wilbur Hot Springs goes back to the Gold Rush days of the 1860’s when Ezekial Wilbur and Edwin T. Howell purchased 640 acres of wilderness to mine copper along Sulphur Creek. When the copper didn’t pan out, Wilbur bought out Howell for $200, built a wood-frame hotel, and opened Wilbur Hot Sulphur Springs. By the 1880’s it was a European-style health resort with a name, and guests arrived by stagecoach. From the Southern Pacific train station in Williams, the 22 mile stagecoach journey took a mere four hours. So yes, guests arrived ready for a well-deserved soak in the scalding spring water. The Victorian-style hotel constructed in 1915 to welcome the weary travelers is still standing. It has been refurbished in keeping with the days of its Victorian splendor, and still echoes 1915, most notably in the absence of electricity. Propane and solar panels power the lights throughout the lodge as well as the refrigerators and stoves in the kitchen. It is possibly the only year-round hotel in California that is not on the power grid. Congruent with the “save the earth” theme, new amenities include a covered yoga deck.

The main attraction for those who come to Wilbur is solitude and silence. In spring, the perfect touch is a hike in the high meadows of Bear Valley, amongst the orange poppies, purple lupine, yellow tidytips and rare adobe lilies that make the valley one of the three most extensive collections of wildflowers in the world. Birdwatchers can get their fill year round, with bald eagles, great blue herons, woodpeckers, belted kingfishers, goldfinches, bluebirds and a variety of hawks populating the skies. If your muscles are ready for a workout, complementary mountain bikes are available. And if the serenity is just too overwhelming, adventure in the form of river rafting is close at hand in nearby Cache Creek Canyon.

Find out more at their website:
WilburHotSprings.com
3375 Wilbur Springs Rd, Williams, CA
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