Day 48: Glenwood Springs, Colorado

What better way to spend a morning than at a theme park? And even better, the only mountain top theme park in the US? Our thoughts exactly, as we had breakfast then took the gondola up to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. There are quite a lot of gondolas, so we didn’t have to wait to get on and whizz straight up the mountain, at an altitude of 2,200 meters (7,100 feet). 

A Rollercoaster, Giant Canyon Swing, and Laser Tag  

While many of the rides (including a pretty hairy rollercoaster we passed on the way up the mountain) were still closed for the season, we had such a fun time going on the rides that were already open! As soon as we got off the gondola, we went straight to the Alpine Coaster, which races down over a kilometer (3,400 feet), and operates year-round. Unlike many other rollercoasters, everyone has their own car that they sit in, and there’s a throttle where you can control the speed on the track. The cars take you along the mountainside, with hairpin turns turning you sideways as you zip past the wildflowers, shrubs, and patches of snow on the ground. We loved it so much that we went on the Alpine Coaster three times, including once when we both were on the one coaster (fortunately Lisette is petite so we were allowed to do this!). The Alpine Coaster was the first ride to be installed at the Park as its cave tours were becoming popular, and continues to be a top-rated ride. 

We went to the Giant Canyon Swing next, which seats 4 passengers at once on a massive pendulum swing (2 people on each side facing away from each other). The swing then arcs to a near vertical height, where you’re looking down hundreds of meters below at the Colorado River. Lisette was admittedly a bit anxious before the ride, because unlike the rollercoaster, she’s not the biggest fan of rides where her stomach drops and churns! Even though the ride is no longer than a minute, there are several swings where you lose your stomach and it falls back down, only to quickly lift up again. It was definitely an exhilarating ride, although we could only do it once, and it took Michael quite some time afterwards to feel his stomach return to normal! 

Finally, we checked out the Laser Tag by the entrance of the Park. Since the park is yet to fully open for the season, we were the only 2 people competing, and it was fun but a bit tiring as we ran around the space and tried to evade each other, while also looking out for bonuses to shoot at to get extra lives or points. Needless to say Michael beat Lisette by hundreds of points, because she frequently didn’t realize that she was being shot at from behind! Before going up to the laser tag we also sampled some fudge at the store, which may have helped settle our bellies from the Giant Canyon Swing! 

Glenwood Hot Springs

After lunch back down in the RV, our next stop was Glenwood Hot Springs Resort for a much more relaxed experience in the afternoon. Glenwood Springs has 3 hot springs (the other two options are Yampah Spa and Iron Mountain Hot Springs), but Glenwood Hot Springs Resort’s claim to fame is that they are home to the original and world’s largest hot springs pool, the Grand Pool, which is 123 meters (405 feet) long and contains 1,071,000 gallons of water. It has a daily flow of 3.5 million gallons at a temperature of 51 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The Ute tribe of Native Americans were the first to discover the healing powers of the hot springs, which they called “Yampah” (Big Medicine). The waters are considered to be a sacred place, and have 15 different minerals including boron, calcium, manganese, phosphate, potassium, silica and zinc, which are all meant to soothe and relax the body. 

There’s designated RV parking about 10 minutes’ walk away, so we parked there and headed over to the hot springs to purchase a day pass. There’s no need to make a reservation–you just show up and get a pass that includes access to all pools and a locker. It costs extra for things like an outdoor cabana, towels, and food & drink (no outside food/drink allowed except for water). There’s a fenced area around the Resort where you can see everyone relaxing in the pools, and also get a strong whiff of distinctive sulfur. We purchased a day pass, then went to immerse ourselves in the variety of pools they had, which were of varying temperatures (all warm though), and features. There are 7 pools in total, which included jet streams, child-sized water slides, a therapy pool, waterfalls splashing down from rock features onto the water below, and one even had lanes to swim in! We were content to simply sit in the different pools and chill like most of the other guests, and stay in the water until our fingers and toes pruned up. 

The Resort is open year-round, regardless of weather. While it was clear and sunny during the day, as the evening descended it started to snow! It was a very vivid contrast to be sitting in the  hot springs as snow started to fall all around us, with white snowflakes embedding themselves into our hair and immediately disintegrating as they landed on the concrete. When we eventually left, the skies turned dark and grey, and it started raining heavily on us. We rushed back to our RV to shed off our wet clothes, and drove back to the same rest stop as the evening before, to warm ourselves up for the night.

Route Map