Get Soaked in Desert Hot Springs

It’s the water that brings visitors to this quiet town at the western end of the Coachella Valley. They come to swim and soak in the steaming mineral water that bubbles from the earth into dozens of pools and spas.

To drum up business in its early days, Desert Hot Springs’ promoters touted their water as a natural elixir with healing properties for arthritis, rheumatism, neuralgia and gout. Even today there’s a spa/hotel especially for arthritic patients.

Many visitors, however, head to mineral pools at the bargain-rate mom-and-pop motels. Others soak away their aches at one of the valley’s most exclusive resorts, Two Bunch Palms.

Also popular is the Desert Hot Springs Hotel and Spa that boasts eight mineral pools of various sizes and temperatures. There’s even a new three-room bed and breakfast, the Travellers Repose, with its own pool and spa.

In the past five years Desert Hot Springs added several modern accommodations, starting with the small but full-service Sunset Inn, the town’s first new hotel in a decade.

It was followed by the largest hostelry, Royal Fox Inn, with 113 rooms and an RV park. Latest to open is the Desert Palms Spa Motel. In all, this town of 10,400 offers more than 60 lodgings with mineral pools.

Cooler Than Palm Springs

Desert Hot Springs is spread across the gentle foothills of the Little San Bernardino Mountains at an altitude of more than 1,000 feet. That means summer temperatures are several degrees cooler than in Palm Springs and other neighboring resorts.

En route to Desert Hot Springs there’s an out-of-the-way place for family entertainment, the Rainbow Rancho trout farm along the Whitewater River.

To get there from Los Angeles, drive east on Interstate 10 past the junction to Palm Springs and exit at Whitewater. Turn left to cross the freeway and join Whitewater Canyon Road that winds five miles up to the Rainbow Rancho Whitewater Trout Co.

Look for huge cottonwood trees that surround freshwater ponds filled with rainbow trout of all sizes. The hatchery has been operating for about half a century and supplies thousands of pounds of fish to public and private lakes in the Southland.

Best of all, two ponds have lots of fat trout that are ready to bite. Anglers of all ages are practically guaranteed fresh trout. And they can cook their catch on a grill in the picnic area or take it home.

Trout by Pound

You pay $2 for rod and reel, bait, bucket and towel (up to three people can use the equipment). The trout caught are weighed. You pay $2.35 a pound, including cleaning of the fish upon request.

The fishing ponds at Rainbow Rancho trout farm are open every day except Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (619) 325-5570 for more information.

Return to Interstate 10 and continue east three exits to the Palm Drive off-ramp. Turn left to follow that ascending road north to Desert Hot Springs.

If it’s a weekday, stop at 13560 Palm Drive to pick up a lodging and dining brochure at the chamber of commerce visitor information center. Or call (619) 329-6403 in advance.

Continue up Palm Drive and turn right on Desert View Drive to the town’s major non-spa attraction, Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo Museum. Now a desert landmark, it’s the legacy of Desert Hot Springs’ first settler, Cabot Yerxa, who arrived in 1913.

He scrounged materials and began building a four-story adobe home in pseudo-Hopi style. The 35-room structure was still unfinished when he died in 1965.

Doors and Windows

The current owner takes visitors on a half-hour tour of the bizarre building, which has 65 doors and 150 windows. The rustic residence is filled with mementos gathered by Cabot from Sioux Indian reservations to the Alaskan gold fields. There’s also an art gallery and gift shop.

Outside is a 43-foot-tall Indian-head statue that’s been carved from redwood and cedar trees by Peter Toth. The Hungarian-born sculptor has created such memorials to the American Indian in all 50 states.

Admission to Cabot’s Old Indian Pueblo is $2, $1.50 for senior citizens and $1 for children 5 to 16 years.

Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except Tuesdays. In July and August the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday through Monday only. Call (619) 329-7610 for more information.

The only B&B; in Desert Hot Springs was built personally by Marian and Sam Relkoff. New, the house has Victorian-era touches, such as pull-chain toilets and fish-scale shingles.

Guests get an afternoon tea and a continental breakfast. Rates for the three rooms are $50, $60 and $75. Call (619) 329-9584 for reservations at the Travellers Repose on 1st Street at Pierson Boulevard. The B&B; is closed July through September.

Hideaway for Capone

Desert Hot Springs’ most historic lodging is Two Bunch Palms, which began as a 1930s hideaway for Al Capone and his mob. After the gangster moved to the penitentiary, Two Bunch deteriorated until renovation took place a decade ago.

These days it’s still a very private resort; no one gets in the guarded gate without a room or dinner reservation. Guests have a choice of 44 new and old lodgings, including Big Al’s bungalow (where there’s a bullet hole in the bedroom mirror).

There are thermal pools, lighted tennis courts, nude sunbathing bins, a small restaurant and spa treatments that include eight methods of massage. Room rates from $135, Capone Suite $295. Two-night minimum required; guests must be 18 years or older. For reservations, call (619) 329-8971.

Among the Desert Hot Springs restaurants are Hayden’s Fishermen’s Wharf, Capri, Little Venice and Kam Lun.

Rejoin Interstate 10 to return to Los Angeles. Round trip to Desert Hot Springs is 236 miles.