The gurgling is the first signal that one has neared the elusive spot. Then the vibrations start, deep beneath the feet. Moments later when sulfur assaults the nostrils, you know exactly where you stand: at the ancient and storied San Juan Hot Springs.
Tucked away in a corner of Caspers Wilderness Park, inaccessible to all but schoolchildren on guided tours, scofflaws inclined to climb fences, and hikers willing to trek six miles from the park's main entrance, is Orange County's legendary natural spa.
There was a time, however, when dozens of people visited the hot springs every day.
For thousands of years, according to supervising park ranger John Gannaway, the hot springs -- which bubble up from three-quarters of a mile beneath Earth's surface and arrive in six natural pools at a temperature of 121 degrees -- were a sacred site to the Juaneno Indians, who believed the waters to have medicinal powers.
About 1888, he said, European settlers came to the same conclusion, creating a commercial resort around the hot springs that lasted into the 1940s. The place featured an Olympic-size swimming pool, cabins, a small store, hot tubs and a dance hall known for loud gatherings, Gannaway says.
It's unclear what prompted the resort to close.
One local legend has it that the resort's owner vindictively dynamited the place to prevent the U.S. Navy from taking it over by eminent domain for use in rehabilitating injured soldiers during World War II.
Whatever the case, Gannaway said, the springs were ignored for many years, until young people rediscovered them in the 1960s. "People started coming out on their own to sit in the hot tubs," the park ranger said.
In 1974 the county acquired the land as part of a purchase from a private developer. And in the early 1980s, Gannaway said, it was leased to an entrepreneur who reopened the site as a public spa.
Russ Kiessig was not available to comment on his San Juan venture. Two years ago, however, he discussed it in detail in an e-mail posted on a website devoted to the hot springs.
"When I arrived on the scene," Kiessig wrote, "there were a few ruins including a pair of ancient end to end swimming pools, an old soaking pool and the small hot springs pools where ... water flowed out at about 50 gallons a minute."
