Hot springs eternal - spas

From the Idaho mountains to the California desert, these spa resorts let you soak in style

* LISTEN. TO THE HISS OF STEAM RISING FROM THE earth. To the collective "ahhh" that we make as we ease our tension-racked bodies into a hot springs pool. "Taking the waters" is an ancient cure for maladies flesh is heir to. The attraction is elemental: warm, soothing pools laden with a brew of salts, sulfurs, and other minerals that converts swear have rejuvenating powers. * Geologically, the West has what it takes to make plenty of hot springs. Water seeps, deep in the earth, are heated by fiery magma formations; fault lines let the water boil to the surface. Among vacationers, the popularity of the hot springs experience is rising too, spurring a spa revival from California to Colorado.

* Why visit a hot springs? The pure indulgence of a good soak is one reason. A lot of people go seeking relief from a pain-in-the-neck pace in the workplace. And then there are alt those spa treatments--for those of us who need to be kneaded. * The hot springs resorts we list below are natural hot springs--not manmade. All offer programs beyond the blissful soak in mineral water: from Swedish and Shiatsu massages to wraps and Watsu. Most are full-scale resorts, offering lodging and dining. And while overnighting at some resorts can be a pricey proposition, nearly all are open to day use too. * So grab your swimsuit and come on in. The water's fine. -- Loraf Finnegan

Desert Hot Springs, California: Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa

Understated star power

* T IS A UNIQUE, IF SOMEWHAT DECADENT, perspective on the universe: flat on my back, ears underwater as I drift in lazy circles in a hot springs pool under a canopy of tamarisk and native palm trees. * I spend a lot of time this way at the famous Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa, near Palm Springs. There is a round opening in the trees, and by day I stare up at the blue desert sky, watching as a palr of hummingbirds engage in an improbably fierce territorial battle beneath the palm fronds. By night, the gap opens to a black, black sky speckled with stars and crossed occasionally by dragonflies and the white owls that live in a second bunch of palms on the property (hence the resort's name).

Fed by mineral-rich hot springs, the water is buoyant and, though cooled (it comes out of the ground through earthquake faults at 148[degrees]), still body temperature. And so I float, watching as the stars seem to orbit about me--as if I were the center of the cosmos--enjoying the very solipsistic feeling that Two Bunch Palms seems intent on creating in each and every one of its guests.

You would never guess that this spa to the stars is here. Two Bunch Palms sits in the town of Desert Hot Springs, home to numerous faded spas and resorts, as well as more recent development. To reach Two Bunch, you pass a strip commercial center with a supermarket, a middle school, and an apartment complex. Baden-Baden this isn't.

Unlike some palatial health spas, all marble and brass and obsequious staffers, Two Bunch is a relaxed, understated place, with architecture that ranges from vintage stone buildings, some said to have been constructed by Al Capone, to more basic '50s-style motel rooms. It retains the funky, counterculture character that it had back in the 1960s before it gained its current celebrity cachet. That status was cemented by the resort's cameo appearance in Robert Altman's consummate Hollywood insider film The Player.

Indeed, while I was there, the Lord of the Dance himself, Michael Flatley, and artist David Hockney were both in residence. What keeps the stars and others coming (and 70 percent of spa guests are recidivists) are the high quality of the treatments and the sense of peace this oasis in the middle of nowhere provides.

And peace can be found here. Listening to music from an underwater speaker, I drift in and out of awareness, and eventually can no longer perceive any boundary between my body and the water. As I wander back into semiconsciousness, my thoughts drift to those mythical accounts of ancient sailors who come to and realize they have been saved from drowning by dolphins or mermaids.

I am beyond relaxed. And it's clear that although I have been soaked in muds (made in part from local green clays said to have curative powers), scrubbed with salts, and, rubbed with oils, in the end the whole Two Bunch experience is less about the body than a kind of marinade for the mind.

Two Bunch Palms Resort & Spa's regular rates start at $175, with sharply lower rates during the off-season (June-September). Package rates, including all meals and spa treatments, start at $310 per person per day. Day spa packages from $225. Returning guests receive major discounts. 67425 Two Bunch Palms Trail, 12 miles north of Palm Springs; (800) 472-4334 or www.twobunchpalms.com.

Matthew Jaffe

Boyes Hot Springs, California: Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa

Water dancing

ARE YOU A FLOATER OR A sinker?" asks Barbara, the Watsu masseuse. Since I'm pretty much all bone, the answer seems obvious, so she hands me a pair of foam floaters to wrap around my legs to increase my buoyancy.