If the bumpy, dusty, boulder-filled approach to this retreat 50 miles north of Phoenix doesn’t tip off that this is not a typical Arizona hotel with manicured golf courses and swimming pools filled with day-drinking sunbathers, then the wild burros—descendants of donkeys set loose in the 1890s after the area’s gold mines went bust—on the side of the road might. The setting hasn’t changed much since the hotel opened in 1896. Or even before that, when the indigenous Yavapati bathed in its mineral-rich springs. The 1,100 acres of desert and curative waters were the very things that brought America’s industrial elite—Roosevelts and Astors—to Castle Hot Springs in the early 20th century and would have kept on pulling glamorous sunseekers if a fire hadn’t shuttered the property in 1976. Now, fifty years since its last guests, a local Phoenix couple has reopened it.
They’ve added thoughtful updates—cottages with outdoor fireplaces and a smart nouveau-Southwest look, and a top-notch restaurant led by Chris Knouse and supported by a team of energetic agronomists who work the acre-farm to produce rare fruits and vegetables for the kitchen. But, importantly, the owners have preserved all that was wonderful and wild, like miles of horseback and hiking trails and the simple hot spring pools built directly into the canyon. And they’ve kept the hotel’s rich history alive, letting myth and fact mingle freely (stories about JFK, who recuperated here after WWII, accounts of Navajo warrior ghosts, rumors of buried gold), for tall tales have always been a part of the Wild West. And this is one retreat that knows success in these parts lies as much in being ready for the future as it does in embracing the past. —Rebecca Misner
