Looking for a Getaway Near Los Angeles? Try Ojai.

“But what about the pink moment?”

Despite a poolside mezcal margarita, I could hear the panic in my voice as I reminded my sisters-in-law of a uniquely Ojai phenomenon. We only had 36 hours in this small, verdant city nestled in the mountains of California’s Ventura County, and we were going to miss our only chance to bask in the pink moment — the fleeting few seconds when the setting sun illuminates the Ojai Valley in an otherworldly shade of dusty rose. I had booked us a room at the Ojai Valley Inn, in part so that we could park ourselves beneath the resort’s 200-year-old oak tree and get an unobstructed view of Chief Peak, a part of the Topatopa Mountains, which are known, in the right conditions, to glow a transcendent shade of coral.

There was only one hitch: 36 hours is not nearly enough time to experience all that Ojai — pronounced, charmingly, “Oh, hi” — has to offer. To make the most of our trip, about 80 miles from our homes in Los Angeles, we were going to have to combine some activities, compromise, and accept that the most rewarding destinations always leave you wanting more.

I ought to know that Ojai is exactly this type of place: Since moving to Los Angeles in 2015, I’ve been there seven times, and every time, I discover something new. My inaugural Ojai visit, in 2017, will forever be remembered for the 50-minute “illumination session” I did with Nicola Fiona Behrman, the Ojai Valley Inn’s then “resident energy alchemist” who endeavored to infuse my “body and soul with nourishing light” by drawing circles around me with a smoldering bunch of sage.

When I told Ms. Behrman I was anxious about a novel that I had started writing, but kept putting off, she spritzed me with a homemade “inspiration mist” and told me to use it whenever I hit a wall. Was I skeptical? Of course. Did the bottle gather dust on my desk? It did. But that novel, The Goddess Effect, in which Ojai makes a prominent appearance, will finally be published in October. (While Ms. Behrman’s illumination session is no longer offered, Katie Manzella, a Reiki master, and Nancy Furst, a spiritual counselor, offer similar treatments, starting at $260.)

If this all sounds too woo-woo, know that Ojai has embraced alternative modes of healing and living since its inception. Settled by the native Chumash approximately 5,000 years ago, the city’s name derives from the Chumash word for “moon.” The valley’s atypical orientation, east-west rather…