All sorts find themselves in hot water here

The best known of all the resorts in town has to be Two Bunch Palms, a storied hideaway sprawled over 56 acres of natural desert beauty. With a past that includes gaggles of celebrity guests and a purported tie to Al Capone - supposedly he and his gang hid out from the law here in the ’20s - Two Bunch is the queen of this desert. Thanks to its well-worn aura of shabby chic, even the non-celebrities in the crowd feel comfortable.

Maybe it’s the bathrobes. Everybody wears them, to meals at the Casino restaurant, around the Grotto pool, and to and from the spa (a former brothel), which includes a handful of ramshackle treatment rooms shaped like Quonset huts and bathrooms done up in ’70s pink tile. Only the signed George Hurrell movie star portraits and a reminder that autograph seekers are not welcome point to the steady stream of A, B, and C, list celebs.

Chatting above a whisper is discouraged, especially at the Grotto, where guests float weightlessly in the heated spring. Besides an array of massages and facials, you can sink into a mud bath, work with a breath therapist, or surrender to a practitioner of watsu, an underwater ballet of stretching and shiatsu.

“There’s no pretense here, zero,’’ said spa director Tony Calsolaro. The guest rooms range from motel-like rooms in the oldest part of the resort to a comfortable two-bedroom villa on the hill with patio and hot tub.

“We really didn’t know what to expect,’’ said Elaine Livengood, who along with her husband, Emmanuel, took a detour to Two Bunch after visiting their daughter in LA. “The waters are really uplifting, detoxifying.’’

Beth D’Addono can be reached at bethdaddono@comcast.net.