Soak Up Your Cares at Springs

When their Granada Hills home was lost to the California 118 freeway in 1969, Paula and Bob Snowdy moved to San Luis Obispo County. There they bought Hidden Valley Hot Springs, a deteriorating spa and campground on 16 acres.

“Our family loved to camp, so Mom and Dad decided to run a campground,” recalls Jim Snowdy, the eldest of two sons. “As for the hot mineral water bubbling up on the property, we just considered it something that was pretty smelly.”

But after more than two decades in business, the family credits the sulfurous water that flows from the earth at 50 gallons a minute as their fountain of success. It fills the private-tiled tubs and outdoor pool where a steady stream of visitors come to soak away their cares.

As many as 50 staff members, including eight masseuses and masseurs, are employed to take care of the spa and camping clientele at the renamed Avila Hot Springs.

It has become a favorite vacation stop for families who like the informal atmosphere. Children especially enjoy the 50-by-100-foot freshwater swimming pool, recreation hall and snack bar.

“Our small grocery store with racks of 10-cent candy is really popular with the kids,” says Jim Snowdy, who now runs the hot springs with his brother, George, and sister, Sally Watters.

The Snowdys are the third family to operate the spa in the past 80 years, at the beginning of which the mineral well was brought under control and buildings first erected for visitors. The big swimming pool that is still in use was built in 1915.

Liquor, gambling and girls gave the hot springs a notorious reputation during Prohibition in the 1920s. William Randolph Hearst and his Hollywood friends were said to stop there en route to the castle Hearst was building on a hilltop at San Simeon.

A large unadorned mirror in the spa’s entry building reportedly was a gift from the newspaper magnate. “We think it’s a 17th-Century piece from Italy,” Snowdy said.

“A turkey run used to occupy that area,” he said, pointing to the playroom with a pool table and video games. It fills the space between the main building and the bath house, which still has the original 1930s step-down ceramic tile tubs. “This place has sort of evolved over the years.”

Among the improvements is the campground with 50 spaces for RVs and a grassy area that will accommodate 25 tents. RVers pay $21 a night (for full hookups including cable TV) and tenters $15.

An hour’s use of one of the six private indoor mineral baths is $8.50. When the $40 fee for a one-hour massage or facial is paid, that person also gets 30 minutes in the private bath or all-day use of the outdoor swimming and hot pools.

Otherwise, use of those two pools is $6.50 daily; children $4.50. They are open and attended by lifeguards from 8 a.m. to midnight in the summer. Swimming lessons are offered.

For more information about Avila Hot Springs Spa and RV Resort, call toll-free (800) 332-2359. The local number is (805) 595-2359.

The Snowdy family enterprise is only one of two successful hot springs in the area. Just down the road, on the opposite side of Avila Beach Drive, is Sycamore Mineral Springs, which caters to a different crowd.

Twenty-three redwood hot tubs in lattice enclosures are scattered on hillsides among live oaks and other trees that add to a feeling of privacy in the outdoors. On a recent spring day at the spa, a young couple from UC Santa Barbara were taking a break from classes.

“We get a considerable number of students, especially from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is less than 15 minutes away by freeway,” said Chet Hogoboom, a manager at Sycamore. “And employees at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant just over the hill also like to relax here after work.”

The hot tubs are available 24 hours, but Hogoboom recommends making reservations if you want one between 7 p.m. and midnight, “especially on weekends and nights with a full moon.”

Garden lamps illuminate the concrete steps and pathways that wind through the wooded hills to the hot tubs. Guests at Sycamore Mineral Springs are given a map to the tubs, which are identified by names such as “Enchantment,” “Shangri-La” and “Paradise.” Hot tubbers pay $9.50 per person an hour.

Also named are the 27 motel-style rooms in two hillside buildings that offer comfortable accommodations as well as a private whirlpool tub on the porch of every room. The rooms are sited by order of their names in the alphabet, from Adventurous to Zany. Nightly rates are $89/$108 a room.

People began staying overnight at the springs at the turn of the century, when San Luis Hot Sulphur Springs was opened as a spa resort. Guests arrived by horse-drawn buggies, stagecoach and a narrow-gauge railway.

Dorothea and Paul Byllings bought the spa soon after the Depression of the ‘30s, renamed it Sycamore Mineral Springs and built a horseshoe-shaped bath house.

Today that renovated adobe and red-tile-roofed building serves as the reception office. It also has rooms for four therapists who offer body massages and facials. Fees are $30 to $65, including 30 minutes in a hot tub.

Mrs. Byllings sold the mineral springs in the 1970s to Carol and Russell Kiessig, who have continued to improve the 116-acre property. The bath-house courtyard has been enhanced with a pond and gazebo, where weddings frequently take place. And a gardener has restored the formal gardens.

A lifeguarded, freshwater swimming pool is open daily until 6 p.m. Hot tubbers and room guests swim free, but others pay $4.50 (children $3.50) for day use of the pool.

To make reservations at Sycamore Mineral Springs, call toll-free (800) 234-5831 or (805) 595-7302.

Both spas sell snacks and beverages, but you’ll find better dining a few miles away on the coast.

Lunch is good at Mulligan’s Bar and Grill on the San Luis Bay Golf Course. Fresh seafood for dinner is outstanding at the Olde Port Inn at the end of Port San Luis Pier. A favorite for all-day dining and Sunday brunch is the Old Custom House.

For other restaurants and lodgings in the area, contact the San Luis Obispo County Visitors and Conference Bureau at toll-free (800) 634-1414.

To drive from Los Angeles to the hot springs, go north on U.S. 101 and take the Avila Beach exit just after the freeway turns inland beyond Pismo Beach.

Round trip from Los Angeles to Avila Beach is 420 miles.