Hot springs offer a refreshing and unique experience in Glenwood Springs, Colorado

I belong to a pool in the summertime, but I wouldn’t say that lounging in a man-made body of water with a raft of other humans is exactly my idea of a thing to do all day. That said, the Spa of the Rockies at the Glenwood Springs Lodge in western Colorado is a pretty great experience to include at least once in your life.

Fresh off of five days skiing, the best features of the hot-springs park are the massage showers and chairs in the hottest end of the two-football-field-long pool, which rests alongside Interstate 70 (with the semis rumbling past not far away), a gondola taking people up to explore the area’s caves and amusement park, and a walkway over to the cute town of Glenwood Springs, where we ate a delicious Nepalese meal. 

We experienced some of the reasons that Glenwood Springs is considered one of the country’s most walkable cities, strolling across that pedestrian bridge above the waterway and interstate and witnessing the many roundabouts and innovative parking infrastructure that originated in the 1980s as the city decided to battle traffic congestion. 

What makes the town feel so nestled into the landscape is that it’s where the Roaring Fork and Colorado Rivers meet down below the spa. Indigenous people have lived in the area for thousands of years and Glenwood Springs is a home-rule city of about 10,000 residents. It was established in 1883 with the name of Defiance and was made up almost entirely of gunslingers, gamblers, and prostitutes. Isaac Cooper is considered the founder of the town but his wife didn’t like its vibe, so she encouraged a name change. They built the main part of the spa’s building (seen above in the photo) in 1888. 

It’s always been a popular and convenient place for visitors passing through near the Colorado-Utah border. President Teddy Roosevelt spent one summer on vacation at the nearby Hotel Colorado (pictured), gunslinger Doc Holliday of O.K. Coral fame is buried in the cemetary, and serial-killer Ted Bundy escaped the county jail for 17 hours at the end of 1977.