Wilbur Hot Springs Video and Media Reviews

A World Away (Full Version)

Follow the cascading stream that leads to a sanctuary of healing volcanic mineral waters. Surrounded by an 1800 acre nature preserve, Wilbur Hot Springs is a place to relax and renew. It is a world away.

Click here for all Wilbur YouTube Videos

Beyond Words... Wilbur Hot Springs

Excerpts from "Four California hot springs, four experiences, all comforting
Sam McManis - The Sacramento Bee | 10/30/12
Bear in mind, before reading further, that this story is being written by a man still under the influence of Northern California's mineral hot springs.

He is blissed out, all skepticism having seeped from his pores, his fingers old-man wrinkled and his senses completely altered from three days of marinating in a heady sulfuric bouillabaisse.

Much as he might try to summon his well- cultivated snark and emotional detachment from his hardened journalistic core, it just ain't happening, folks. Among all the minerals – selenium, potassium, carbonic acid, even a touch of lithium – that have pierced his epidermis, he finds himself strangely irony-deficient.

This is what a Tour de Hot Springs will do to a guy... Stressed? Frustrated? Enervated? Get thee to a hot springs, stat.

Wilbur Hot Springs

Leaving Sacramento behind, the drive on Highway 16 through the Capay Valley into the rolling hills of Colusa County is a good start at lowering the blood pressure. Near the end of a four-mile dirt road at Wilbur's gate, a large sign reads: "Time to Slow Down."

It is both a greeting and a friendly admonition. But, really, people have no choice. Wedged between oak-studded hillsides, Wilbur has no cell service, no guest Wi-Fi, no televisions.

"Right now," said manager Michael Van Hall, "even our (landline) phone service is down. But we're getting by. This is what you'd expect in nature. We're trying to create a place of healing, self- reflection. We're on the inner-contemplative end of the (hot springs) spectrum."

Wilbur offers massage service and an occasional chef's weekend, but solitude reigns. Which sat just fine with daughter Patricia and mother Heather, who declined to give their last names, who came from Eureka and Grass Valley, respectively, to decompress on a "mother-daughter week."

"I like that this is rustic and sort of old-school," Heather said. "It's not some modern monstrosity. It's got its own laid-back style."

Wilbur's main building is a turn-of-the-century hotel with 20 rooms and a bunkhouse with 11 beds. There is a library and music area, recalling days of yore. Only the expansive kitchen is thoroughly modern.

Beyond the creaking, wooden veranda lie miles of hiking and mountain biking trails, including the Smelt Loop that features the ruins of two abandoned smelters.

But it's the water that holds the allure.

Wilbur's "flumarium" consists of three flumes, about 20 feet long and 4 feet wide of increasing temperature – 98, 105 and 110 degrees. It is sheltered from the elements by a wooden roof and, from a distance, you can see the steam curling up over the walls. Below is a "cold" pool, which looks like a regular backyard pool, but it's filled with mineral water.

More than any other hot spring on the itinerary, Wilbur's waters were the most pungent, due to the extremely high sulfur content. As you walk the trails beside the creek, the water flowing off volcanic rock appears milky. It can be bracing, but as Van Hall said, "As with any place, like a farm, after half a day, you don't smell it."

What lingers longer is the silky feel of the minerals coating your skin. Though Wilbur guests are required, for hygiene's sake, to shower before entering the baths, Giesen said many don't shower off immediately after soaking, opting to let the minerals seep into them.

"It's just so relaxing," she said. "Maybe it's the lithium," joked Patricia, the Grass Valley guest.

Wilbur Wind-Down
Weekend Sherpa - San Francisco | KFOG | 1/29/09
Folks have been relaxing at way-off-the-beaten-path Wilbur Hot Springs, near Clear Lake, for 150 years. What's the draw? The A-frame open-air "Fluminarium" here shelters three flumes of flowing water that range in temperature from 98 to 110 degrees. Their real secret is lithium, an element from the hot springs that's said to mellow out even the most anxious Type-As. These tranquil, isolated hot springs are about a 2.5-hour drive from San Francisco, so leave early in the morning to make it a day trip... book a stay during the once-a-month guest chef cooking weekends and enjoy the fruits of someone else's culinary labor.
Read full article...

Wilbur Hot Springs: A resort and healing sanctuary near San Francisco
SF Globe Examiner | Lisa Alpine | 16/12/09
"It’s the healing waters, the tranquility. It waters the deepest place in my soul. Washes me clean. Pulls out the toxins. I sleep and eat and bath." – L.A

My own version of a health insurance policy is to escape from the details of life and soak in hot mineral water. I always feel light and loose in my joints for weeks after. That is why I recently retreated to Wilbur Hot Springs resort two hours north of San Francisco.

The road to Wilbur winds through the Capay Valley past walnut orchards and rundown farming towns. Fruit stands offer oranges and honey... The valley narrowed as I continued on my journey. The road wound upward through Cache Creek Canyon. I was startled to see elk grazing on a hillside across the river. The gorge opened up to another valley and the turnoff for Wilbur Hot Springs. My nose led the way. Sulfur fumes wafted from the stream running along the road. A herd of furry, rotund cows trotted ungainly in front of the car as I approached the entrance gate.
Read full article...

Shedding Workday Stress – And Maybe Clothes
San Francisco Chronicle | Sam Zuckerman | 4/22/07
Wilbur Hot Springs inspires relaxation in isolated haven... As I lowered myself into the water in the redwood bathhouse at Wilbur Hot Springs, the acrid smell of sulphur filled my nostrils and a steamy mineral broth enveloped me.

Taking shallow breaths, I squinched down closer to my wife, closed my eyes and felt the water's buoyancy. Slowly, the moist heat penetrated my muscles and I began to relax. It wasn't long before the tumult of the office, where I had been just a little more than three hours before, was all but unimaginable.

Relaxation is what Wilbur Hot Springs is about — not just taking it easy, but among the most profound sheddings of tension, stress and mindless busyness I've ever experienced. As the sign on the road in says: "Time to Slow Down."...
Read full article...

California Hot Springs for Any Body
New York Times | Gregory Dicum | 11/09/07
Jeanric held my gaze in his, smiling softly. “Close your eyes,” he whispered in a gentle French accent, “and relax.” He took me in his muscular arms, cradling my shoulders from behind as my feet left the bottom of the pool. My naked body swirled through the warm water of a hot spring until I had the distinctly expansive feeling of tumbling across the star-strewn Milky Way.

The promise of ecstatic moments — whether from body treatments or just the soothing nature of the waters — has drawn visitors to Northern California’s natural hot springs since people first discovered them thousands of years ago...
Read full article...

Wilbur Hot Springs: Saunas, Massages and Tub Nirvana
San Francisco Examiner | Linda Berlin
WILLIAMS, Colusa County - Hauling our groceries into the communal kitchen of the historic Victorian, my husband and I realized we had broken a basic rule at Wilbur Hot Springs. All the other guests were in stocking feet, so I nudged Michael and silently pointed at our shoes. We slinked back to the veranda to take them off.

After sorting our food in the communal kitchen and cleaning our mess - no one scolded us - I went to our room on the third floor, while Michael reparked the car in a gravel lot a short walk from the lodge. Wilbur Hot Springs is a rainy-day haven just two hours northwest of Sacramento, tucked into the foothills of Colusa County.

With the exception of our muddy footprints, the lodge was immaculate and the guests were kind...
Read full article...

Rustic Bathing Beauty: The sound of tranquil silence as Wilbur Hot Springs spa & resort
LA Times | Linda Berlin
WILLIAMS, Calif.-- In a rustic Fluminarium beside a creek, I dipped my big toe into three rectangular pools, testing the different temperatures before settling into a soothing 98-degree bath. I took a deep breath and stretched out in the silky pea-green water, dropping my head back and exhaling a month's worth of tension.

One end of the A-frame Fluminarium was open to the outdoors, exposing a dense evergreen forest that covered the hill above the natural hot springs. Wilbur Hot Springs spa is tucked in the foothills of Colusa County, about two hours northwest of Sacramento in a wilderness area known for its spectacular wildflowers...
Read full article...

View some YouTube videos by Daniel Vitalis.