Arizona

Why Oprah Winfrey just had to shout out these 3 Arizona spa resorts

Published

6 months ago

June 10, 2025

Press Room

Why Oprah Winfrey just had to shout out these 3 Arizona spa resorts

Three Arizona spas were listed in Oprah Daily’s 2025 Hotel O-Wards.
The list includes spas with exceptional treatments, services and practitioners.

Three of Arizona’s most luxurious destination spa resorts received praise from Oprah Winfrey.

Her website Oprah Daily recently honored 53 destination spas worldwide in the 2025 Hotel O-Wards. Now in its second year, Oprah’s Hotel O-Wards recognize spa resorts whose treatments, services and practitioners are “best-in-class.”

The 17 honorees in the U.S. and Canada include three from Arizona: Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, Mii amo and Castle Hot Springs.

The three resorts are no stranger to recognition among Arizona’s most celebrated travel experiences, with Oprah Daily praising each of them for high quality and distinctive services.

Here’s a look at each of the Arizona honorees and why they were selected.

Sanctuary Camelback Mountain, Scottsdale

Scottsdale has more than 50 resort and day spas, according to Experience Scottsdale, the city’s convention and visitors bureau. Sanctuary Camelback Mountain stood out among them in the Hotel O-Wards survey because of the size of its spa − 12,000 square feet − and the diversity of its treatment menu.

Standout offerings include a restorative meditation experience called Nidra sound voyage, which is claimed to equal three hours of sleep, and a form of underwater shiatsu massage known as watsu therapy.

Mii amo, Sedona

The accolades for this wellness spa within Enchantment Resort in Sedona’s Boynton Canyon − a vortex believed to have healing energy − have piled up since a $40 million renovation was finished in 2023, including from USA TODAY readers who named it the nation’s best spa in 2024.

Oprah Daily cited the renovation for elevating its offerings, including 23 casitas, 26 treatment rooms, a two-story fitness studio and a new restaurant, Hummingbird.

All-inclusive getaways at Mii amo can last from three to 10 nights, with treatments including past-life regression with a hypnotherapist and aura photography, both cited by Oprah Daily as highlights.

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Castle Hot Springs, Bradshaw Mountains

One of Arizona’s oldest resorts, the 1,100-acre Castle Hot Springs in the Bradshaw Mountains north of Phoenix offers wellness retreats that include bathing in the resort’s mineral-rich hot springs.

A multimillion-dollar renovation brought the resort back to life in 2019 after a fire shuttered it in the mid-1970s; its second life has seen widespread critical acclaim, including Travel + Leisure declaring it Arizona’s best resort in three of the last four years.

Oprah Daily praised the water-centric programming, including watsu therapy in the hot springs, paddleboard yoga and − in contrast with the average 106-degree temperatures of the springs − a newly introduced cold plunge pool with temperatures ranging from 43 to 46 degrees.

Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at Michael.Salerno@gannett.com.

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Arizona

Arizona football shuts out Baylor in 2nd half for 4th straight victory

Published

55 minutes ago

November 22, 2025

Press Room

Arizona football shuts out Baylor in 2nd half for 4th straight victory

Arizona’s massive senior class was honored before the final home game of the season, the first at newly named Casino del Sol Stadium. And they went out on top, with many stepping up to keep the win streak going.

The Wildcats outscored Baylor 27-0 in the second half, including 20 points in just over four minutes in the fourth quarter, for a 41-17 win. It was the fourth in a row overall for the UA (8-3, 5-3 Big 12) and improved its home record to 6-1, tying the school record for most home wins in a season.

Kedrick Reescano ran for three touchdowns, including a 19-yarder to turn a 4-point game into a 2-score advantage, while Noah Fifita threw for 183 yards and a TD and Arizona’s defense forced three turnovers and made three stops on fourth down.

Several UA seniors had huge games. Kris Hutson had nine catches for a career-high 133 yards and a TD, Ismail Madhi ran for 93 yards and a score, Dalton Johnson had 18 tackles and Treydan Stukes intercepted a pass in the end zone to preserve what at the time was a 4-point lead.

Baylor (5-6, 3-5) scored on its first two drives then had one field goal the rest of the way, gaining 129 yards after taking a 17-14 lead at halftime. FBS passing leader Sawyer Robertson was limited to 162 yards with a TD and two interceptions, making the Bears the ninth opponent not to reach 200 passing yards.

The UA won for the third straight game despite trailing at the half but went ahead for good just over three minutes into the third quarter on a 1-yardReescanorun. That came after the game’s fourth pass interference penalty thrown in the end zone.

Four consecutive 3-and-outs followed before Baylor put together a sustained drive, getting into the red zone to start the 4^th quarter. The Bears went for it on 4^th and 3 from the UA 12 but Robertson’s pass was picked off in the end zone byStukes.

The UA drove into the red zone after the interception but had to settle for a field goal, with Michael Salgado-Medina missing to the right from 38 yards out. It was his ninth miss of the season.

Yet a play later the Wildcats had the ball back, with Taye Brown forcing a fumble and Michael Dansby recovering it. The next snap saw Ismail Madhi score on a 28-yard run for a 28-17 lead with 10:29 to go.

Reescano’s third TD, from 19 yards out, came with 6:38 remaining, and 11 seconds later Jabari Mann returned a pick 34 yards for a score.

Baylor scored on its opening drive, only the third opponent to do so this season. A 30-yard pass on the first play and a pass interference call on 4^th down set up Robertson’s 9-yard TD pass to Josh Cameron for a 7-0 lead less than three minutes in.

Arizona matched that score on its first possession, also benefitting from a pass interference call, with Reescano scoring on a 2-yard run immediately after.

The Bears went up 14-7 in the final minute of the first quarter on a 2-yard Robertson run after another pass interference call on Arizona. The Bears converted a 4^th down earlier in the drive after also catching a break when forward progress was ruled on what looked like a UA fumble recovery.

The first stop of the game came with 4:59 left before halftime when, after Arizona forced a 49-yard field goal attempt, Baylor’s Connor Hawkins was wife left. But the Wildcats didn’t capitalize, with a Fifita pass going off Tre Spivey’s hands to Baylor’s DJ Coleman for an interception.

That snapped a streak of 140 consecutive attempts for Fifita without a pick.

Baylor turned that into points just before the half, getting a 48-yard field goal from Hawkins.

The UA wraps up the regular season Friday at ASU, looking to take back the Territorial Cup and win for the second time in a row in Tempe.

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Arizona

Freed sex offender allegedly poses as doctor, sexually assaults student at Arizona elementary school: police

Published

19 hours ago

November 22, 2025

Press Room

Freed sex offender allegedly poses as doctor, sexually assaults student at Arizona elementary school: police

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Friday – A convicted sex offender freed from prison two weeks ago allegedly posed as a doctor and sexually assaulted a student inside an Arizona elementary school, sparking outrage and calls for answers from parents, according to reports.

Abel Kai Gblah, 25, is accused of sexual assault and kidnapping after he accessed school grounds and posed as a doctor to lure a student into a classroom and assaulted her at Orangewood Elementary School on Nov. 19, according to the Phoenix Police Department (PPD).

PPD officials said in a statement to Fox News Digital that officers were called to the school after administrators reported that an incident had occurred on campus.

“When officers arrived, they learned an unauthorized man had made it onto school grounds and lured a grade-school-aged girl into a classroom where he sexually assaulted her,” police said. “At some point, the student was able to push the man away. He then ran from the scene before officers arrived.”

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Abel Kai Gblah was accused of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a student at a Phoenix elementary school on Nov. 19. (National Sex Offender Registry)

FOX 10 Phoenix reported that court documents show Gblah allegedly drew the attention of a student by impersonating a doctor and expressing that he had to examine her.

After fleeing the school, police located Gblah, who was booked into jail on multiple charges.

Gblah was released from prison two weeks ago on similar charges, according to the outlet, and was also allegedly involved in human smuggling across the U.S. border.

According to FOX 10, a prosecutor at Gblah’s court appearance said he was convicted twice in 2021 for sexual conduct with a minor and a registered sex offender.

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Abel Kai Gblah was arrested this week after allegedly sexually assaulting a student at a Phoenix elementary school. (iStock)

The news station reported that the Washington Elementary School District said in a statement that school administration immediately called 911 and placed the school on lockdown for over an hour.

“He was on campus for approximately 10 minutes and during that time, he made inappropriate contact with a student,” the district wrote.

The district shared a separate statement with Fox News Digital that it released to parents on Friday, which revealed the results of its internal investigation, including that Gblah was a former student of the school who attended from 2012 to 2015.

Abel Kai Gblah allegedly assaulted a student at Orangewood Elementary School in Phoenix on Nov. 19. (Google Maps)

While initial reports indicated that the Gblah gained access to the campus behind a student who had buzzed in, further investigation revealed that he entered through an unlocked lobby door, and walked in with a tardy student, the district stated.

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Following the investigation, a staff member has been placed on administrative leave, the district added.

“We understand how alarming this situation has been and want you to know that we are reviewing every aspect of our safety procedures and communication to ensure that an event like this does not happen again, wrote Orangewood Elementary Principal Emily Paterson.

According to FOX 10, Gblah is being held on a cash-only bond of $500,000, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Dec. 1.

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