Mud baths and hiking at Calistoga, CA: January 2018

     You go to Calistoga to rejuvenate.  This time I went with my husband and a girlfriend.  The plan was the 11 mile Palisades hike, dinner at Veraison French restaurant, mud baths at Golden Haven Spa and Resorts, soaking in the mineral pools, early morning bike ride, more soaking, checkout, bocce ball, Calistoga window shopping, lunch, St Helena window shopping and a couple wineries.
     As soon as we arrived at the base of the Oak Hill Mind Road trail, we parked along the road and ordered an Uber.  I found out later that Uber sneaks on a $7 far pickup charge, so we ended up spending $30 on our 15 minute ride to Robert Louis Stevenson State Park to catch the Table Rock Trail.  From this essay that I read about the Palisades hike, I thought the hike would be mostly downhill, so we estimated about 4-5 hours and thought starting by 12:30 would let us be done by dark and in time for our 5:45 dinner reservation.  At times the trail was difficult to decipher and ended at a cliff.  We wasted some twenty minutes backtracking and finding the right trail about five minutes after Table Rock.

Table Rock

Right after Table Rock, you'll find the beginning of the Palisades Trail.  8.4 miles to go!

When given the choice between left and right, choose right.  The trail had far more ascents than expected.  Plus, you can only predict how fast you will walk, not how fast other people in your group will walk.  A little worried about the timing, we still immensely enjoyed the hike.

Most of it traverses the edge of mountains with constant amazing views, while meandering in and out of forests and grassy areas, with palisade cliffs hanging overhead.

Probably my favorites scene!  Running slightly downhill through these soft green grasses was surreal! But don't look up, or you'll feel dizzy!  

lush forest waterfall scene

Green grasses with a view.

Rock mazes

Rock balancing!

What's around the bend?

Past rock piles, mazes, creeks, waterfalls, fairytale grasslands and sunny skies,  we reached the 3rd leg, Oak Hill Mine Road, at 5PM  To our dismay, the sign read 4.5 miles to Calistoga.  There was no way we would make it back before nightfall!

Night is coming, and we are still 4 miles away!

 At mile marker 4.0, my husband decided to run ahead to the car to bring the flashlight back to us.  We worried for his safety running in the dark alone, but our plan was to walk extremely slowly after dark and just wait for him.  But at mile marker 3.5, we saw our godsend.  A man on a mountain bike with a  bike light was coming down from the lookout point.  I greeted him, and he asked if we had enough water and a flashlight.  When I said no to the flashlight, he offered to guide us down.  I said I didn't want to ruin his evening, but he said he didn't want to leave us alone up there because mountain lions were known to roam those parts.  He was great company going down, and we found out he was a United Airlines pilot; he was used to saving people's lives in emergency situations.  His wife, who owns Kara cupcakes, called asking where he was, and I felt bad.  But to assure us he was being useful, a couple times he turned off his light so we could see the trail in pitch black.  You could see nothing!  After running in pitch black with the sounds of mountain lions over his shoulders, my husband and the flashlight caught  up with us at mile marker 1.5, and we parted with our pilot and made it to the car by 6:40 with no injuries!  We were only one hour late to our dinner reservation!  

Oysters at La Vraison after 11 mile hike!

    Veraison was not busy. so we sat down and asked the waiter what items could be made quickly and ordered all of those:  oysters, cheese and meat plates, salads, French Onion soup and wine.  It was all perfect for a post-11 mile hike dinner!  We made it just in time for our 8PM mud bath appointment.
     I had been to Calistoga with my whole family a few years prior, and we thought we were booking the same mud bath again, but when we arrived at Golden Haven, we realized we had never been there before.  Many places in town have mud baths.  Who knows which one we were at before.  In the end, we were pleasantly surprised with the very different atmosphere and services provided by a Golden Haven couples mud bath, as opposed to the one we had received at the unremembered location a few years prior.  Both were great, just different.
     Golden Haven has private room with two mud baths for couples.  You only get to stay in the mud bath for 15 minutes.  You really wish it was longer.  It is absolutely delightful to sit in warm soft mud.  Don't touch the bottom! It's hot.  Just sink in and cover yourself with that warm thick mess.  Your attendant then tells you it is time to shower, sit in the jacuzzi for 15 minutes and then go to an aromatherapy room for a 25 minute warm blanket wrap.  When I inquired about the mud bath on the phone, I learned it was 1 hour long.  Now I know not to ask how long the mud bath is but to ask how long I will actually be in the mud.  In seemed to me that we were in the mud much longer at the unremembered location.   However, that location didn't include the jacuzzi and blanket wrap, which make the experience quite nice.  Instead, they had fancy steam showers.  Golden Haven isn't so fancy, but it was clean and authentic, perfect for us.

Couples Mud Bath at Golden Haven  No more soreness after this hot mushy mess!

     After the 60 minute mud bath experience we used the hot tubs and pools available to all guests and called it a day.
The next morning we grabbed some complimentary aussie items and tea, checked out complimentary bikes from the front desk and found the Wine Trail, short but beautiful and refreshing.  It led us through some foggy vineyards.  We also biked the farm roads around the town and even found a ditch that was steaming.  Sure enough the water was hot, and very green soft algae was growing in it.  It just reminded us how thermal waters are present everywhere in Calistoga, making it an incredibly spa healthy destination.

    Before checking out, we used the hot tubs and pool one more time as we joined a discussion about California's new marijuana legalization.  Fellow spa users were complaining that the dose of marijuana in edibles was cut in half after legalization.  The things you can learn at a thermal bath!   Then, we tried our hand on the bocce ball courts behind the hotel.  There was pool, ping pong, bean bag toss and a picnic area too, plenty to keep families busy.
     In the afternoon, we visited two art galleries in downtown Calistoga.   Ca'Toga Gallery was very impressive because the Venetian owner, Carlo Marchiori, is also the artist, and he created everything in his gallery.  The theme seemed to be statues and paintings of jesters. It took him four months to paint the ceilings.  The shopkeeper said his local home was even more impressive.

Ca'toga Gallery ceiling

Then we had lunch at Evangeline, a locally owned French creole restaurant with great reviews on Yelp.  We were more than delighted with our lobster omelet, blackened shrimp and grits, and eggs benedict.  The grapefruit juice/champagne was to die for.

Feeling flexible with bartender after tasting at Provenance

We headed off to St. Helena and visited some shops such as a Turkish pottery shop and Pandora.  On the way back we visited two wineries: Baringer and Provenance   Both were $30 for tasting, so we tasted at the second winery only.   Our bartender let us all share one tasting.  He said he poured a little more than 1/3 into each cup.  In any case, it was enough to get me dancing and doing the splits!
     It was a very memorable and refreshing weekend.   We will do this once a year!