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OPPOSITE, OSMOSIS; INDIAN SPRINGS; ESALEN; DANIEL BIANCHETTA destination, with myriad spas statewide. Two hours inland from Los Angeles, Desert Hot Springs offers dozens of options, from the glamorous, sprawling Two Bunch Palms (featured in the movie The Player) to cozy boutique inns like Hacienda Hot Springs. The Central Coast also boasts famous baths, such as Esalen (equally known for its extensive list of alternative-education workshops) and Tassajara, the first Zen monastery built outside of Asia. But small, funky Calistoga in the north is the state's oldest spa town, renowned not only for hot springs but also abundant volcanic ash used for therapeutic mud treatments. Eight thousand years ago, the Wappo Indians named the area "Ta La Ha Lu Si," meaning "Beautiful Land" or "Oven Place," and today spa facilities run the gamut from luxurious to laidback. The oldest in Calistoga—and likely California—is Indian Springs, opened in 1862 by Sam Brannan, the first gold rush millionaire. The property features an Olympic-size mineral pool, steam rooms steeped with eucalyptus and a meditation pond. (Tip: In the winter, book a weeknight room and receive two complimentary mud baths.) Wine Country Wellness Californians are known to soak up a lot more than wine in Napa Valley and Sonoma. Residents have long enjoyed the area's natural mineral waters, and today's spa menus overflow with treatments using grape seeds and skins, rich in antioxidants and polyphenols. For first-class pampering, lavish accommodations and a threestar Michelin dinner, visit the spa at Meadowood and order the Cabernet Crush, a warm grape-seed body wrap, followed by a grape-seed oil massage or facial. But it's not all about grapes in wine country. At Sonoma's Osmosis, an innovative, eco-conscious day spa, the specialty is a cedar enzyme "bath." Guests immerse themselves to the AT INDIAN SPRINGS you can take a healing mud bath, above left, or luxuriate in their iconic Olympic-size swimming pool, above. MANY FAMOUS FOLKS have gathered at Esalen over the years, including these folk-singing 1960s stars Mama Cass, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins and Joan Baez in 1968; Esalen is also famous for the views from its hot tubs, right. 2 0 1 3 t r av e l g u i d e to c a l i f o rnia 69