Desert Bloom

Surprising Arizona presents luxurious resorts couched in vast expanses of startling Southwestern beauty

- By Gretchen Kelly

When a young John F. Kennedy came to Castle Hot Springs in the late 1940s, the Peoria, AZ, spa had already been open for nearly 50 years. Kennedy was flown in by helicopter to the ancient therapeutic hot spring to heal from his war injuries – an early tradition that was first started by local Apache and Yavapai Native American warriors who also came here to heal after fighting.

By Kennedy’s time, the resort was already known as a watering hole for families like the Vanderbilts, Pews, Cabots, Astors, Wrigleys and Roosevelts. It is considered the “dowager” resort of Arizona – the first of a glittering chain of posh oases that were created, initially for wellheeled patients with tuberculosis and other lung issues and then later just catering to wealthy clientele who came for the beauty of the Sonoran desert and the climate of constant sunshine it offered.

Castle Hot Springs has newly reopened (in late 2019) after several large fires consumed some of its older buildings and made a renaissance and reset a needed boost to bring the first health resort of Arizona back to vibrant life.

Like the desert itself after a drenching rain, the resort has been lovingly restored by its new owners (a philanthropic family from the Phoenix area) who sought to pay homage to the historical buildings and makeup of the resort rather than to recreate it in its vintage form.