Hot Springs Are Place to Relax and Mud Things Over

A hot spring is a place you should visit when you’re tired, stressed, achy or otherwise overwrought, because you know you’ll see things differently when you come out.

Glen Ivy Hot Springs in Corona is one of the few surviving in this area.

The spring off Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano closed more than two years ago; the La Vida hot spring resort in the Carbon Canyon section of Brea burned down and has not been reopened.

Glen Ivy is about an hour’s drive from the western part of the county. It’s worth a half-day trip or more, especially if your spirits need reviving.

Noon to 12:45: Before you reach the hot springs, stop at Tom’s Farms for lunch.

There is a restaurant here, but the best food will be found in the deli: fresh-baked hot sourdough bread among them. Cold cuts, cheese and soft drinks are for sale, too.

Once you’ve selected your lunch, head out behind the market to a patio of white wrought-iron tables. Here, you can gaze across the small man-made pond toward the graceful Santa Ana foothills.

A three-piece country band plays from a gazebo on weekends.

12:45 to 2:45: The initial visit to the hot springs is $16.75 per person on weekends. If you remember to ask for a discount card on your way out, future visits will be $14.50.

The spring has also been handing out free passes for return visits recently, so you may want to ask about those at the main desk.

A hot spring was originally a natural phenomenon. Glen Ivy is not a genuine hot spring but a man-made approximation. There is a swimming pool, several types of hot tubs, a mineral bath and a clay bath.

Many of the tubs and baths are scattered in alcoves, separated from one another by palm trees and thick bushes.

The admission fee buys entry to all of these tubs and to a 2 p.m. water aerobics class in the main swimming pool.

Massage prices run from $28 for feet to $85 for deluxe full body, with several options in between.

Your first stop, once inside the spring, is the locker room. You can change into your swimsuit and secure your belongings for a 25- or 50-cent locker rental fee. You’ll want to take a towel and maybe a book with you to the tubs.

This crisp weather is perfect for hot-tub sitting, and Glen Ivy is a beautiful setting, with a view of the foothills.

There are whirlpool tubs, champagne tubs (so named because they are shaped like champagne glasses) and mineral baths.

The baths, which smell slightly like sulfur or rotten eggs, are supposed to replenish your body with any minerals it is lacking.

The clay bath is for the truly adventuresome--and for those wearing old swimsuits.

Bathers stand in thigh-high clay-colored water and break chunks from a block of clay in the center of the pool.

Wetting it, they rub the clay over their bodies and then lie on clay-encrusted lounge chairs in the sun until the stuff dries.

Then they shower, using scrub brushes and soap. It can be difficult to wash off all remains of the clay.

Afterward, the bather’s skin is softer, as though the whole body had been treated to a salon facial.

2:45 to 3: Stop back at Tom’s Farms on your way home and pick up some fruit and vegetables at the produce stand. They’re inexpensive and fresh.

Tom’s Farms

23900 Temescal Canyon Raod, Corona, (909) 277-9992

Produce area open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Restaurant and deli are open until 8 p.m.

Glen Ivy Hot Springs

25000 Glen Ivy Road, Corona (909) 277-3529

Through Feb. 28, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. tp 6 p.m. on weekends. (From March 1 to Oct. 31, hours are 10 a.m. every day.) Weekday admission price is $14.50 for adults and children, with $1 off for senior citizens. Weekends, all admissions are $16.75. Children under 3 are admitted free every day.

Parking: There is free on-site parking at both locations.