Glenwood Hot Springs

What do you call a place filled with pure relaxation, fun for everyone and an affordable adventure? It ain't Heaven just yet, it's Glenwood Springs, Colorado!

When COVID strikes, what do you do? Do you waste away day by day with the procrastination of real life? The hypocrisy of going to the grocery store but not enjoying a quick getaway because the wrong person might breathe on you in a pool versus the bread aisle gets me every time, hence the reason we have been living our best quarantine life since the world flipped upside down. I’d recommend doing it, it’s quite enjoyable!

In the midst of finding our next best adventure during this time, we wanted to take a road-trip. Easy packing, you have everything you need in the car, and a bottomless glass of possibilities. If you read my last blog, you know we took a trip to Yellowstone National Park, if you didn’t read it, shame on you! To give you the gist of the trip, it didn’t end there…From Yellowstone we drove to Moab National Park in Utah and then made our way back to Denver, Colorado. As if the long route we took wasn’t fun enough, we felt we could add in one last stop to our adventure, and man am I stoked we did!

My road dog and life partner, Jeremy, knows me far too well. We stopped in Colorado wine country, grabbed a bottle of rosé and continued home. Saw the sign for hot springs off of i-70 and felt the need to check it out. After making quite a few wrong turns off the exit (which drives me absolutely insane) we found Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge. I can’t tell you how excited I was to find this place! After a week-ish of camping and being in a car exploring, I was totally stoked to relax in a body of “healing” waters. I made my way to the front desk quicker than a ninja to get the hotel room, snagged the keys and off we were to park, unpack and cannonball our way into relaxation.

With COVID still being a thing everywhere, masks were required in the lobby as well as all public places. We arrived to our room after taking the elevator (I was not trying to overachieve with the stairs as this time), and proceed to organizing-ly putting my crap EVERYWHERE, it’s what I do. The room itself had a hot springs view, which didn’t hurt the experience, and was the perfect place to lay our heads after a long week. I wouldn’t say that this hotel compared to the Ritz Carlton, but it definitely did the trick. The stay was high priced for the value of the room, but you are definitely paying for experience with this one, and I would do it again tomorrow.

Had I known ahead of time this was on the itinerary, I would have taken advantage of the packages available on the website. Make sure you look at what is being offered with the room before checking in. A few to name are not only the hot springs (access was included with the room for the both of us), but also white water rafting and biking! We found this out and got a little salty that we didn’t know; ya’ win some, ya’ lose some…we lost this one.

ANYWAYS. We took time that evening to relax and enjoy the natural hot springs pools. With a large pool deck surrounding, plenty of chairs were available for the two of us as well as large families. The lodge offered 3 different pools, + a kiddie pool, ranging in temperature. Glenwood’s smaller hot spring pool was set at a relaxing temperature of 102 with jets to sooth muscles. It was quite a scream watching this man attempt to put his armpit in range of the jets. Good lookin’ situation sir! He must have been really sore in that area. Next up was the large and in charge pool resting at a solid 94 degrees and included a few lap lanes as well as diving well, which was our favorite part. Crowd pleaser, the third option, a water slide. DUDE, this was too fun. It was almost like you were white water rafting, kinda freaked me out but in a good way. Thankfully Jeremy and I weren't the only adults going down it, so you know it's legit!

Glenwood Hot Springs is ridiculously relaxing. If the healing waters isn't enough for you, the Spa of the Rockies is available to guests…don’t forget to ask about packages for the spa as well! Services offered range from massages to facials, nails and waxing. A collection of relaxing possibilities for everyone!

After hitting up the pools for a solid 4 hours, we needed some food! The hotel is walking distance from this adorable street thanks to a pedestrian walking bridge which takes you from the hotel area over to downtown. So many adorable restaurants with outside seating and a street performer serenading your way through a cocktail or twelve. Anytime BBQ is present, we gravitate towards that idea, however, the restaurant was getting ready to close and we didn’t want to be “those people” so we made our way next door to a delicious Italian restaurant called The Italian Underground Restaurant. If you didn’t get it from the name, the restaurant seating is indeed downstairs, underground. I bet they save a lot on their electric bill; it was nice and chilly down there! We ordered salads and a pizza to share, and it was sooo good! I wouldn’t go out of my way to say the service was excellent, but everyone was kind so that wins in my heart! Once our tummies were full, it was time to shut eye for the night.

Breakfast was included with the stay. Due to COVID, they did not have their regular menu available, but they did have breakfast sandwiches, donuts, coffee, all that jazz, so it filled us up to start our day. The hotel breakfast was totally enjoyable because it is served at the Hot Springs grill. You order your breakfast and eat on the pool decks, which I thought was totally adorable. Also, because of the friendly family sitting next to us at breakfast, we learned about the amusement park 2 miles from the hotel! On the top of a mountain! Which we decided to do next!

Without knowing how long we would be enjoying this amusement park, we thought it would be best to load the car up ahead of time. The hotel was nice enough to allow you Hot Springs access after checkout, so we left a separate pool bag knowing we would be taking full advantage of that after being in the hot sun all day. Back to the park adventure! Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park offered so many fun enjoyable rides and cave tours. The entrance to the park itself was a 5-7ish minute gondola ride from the parking lot to the top of the mountain (parking was free). I would absolutely say that we were way too old to be doing this experience without the “I have children” excuse, but I enjoyed every bit of being there! Aside from the fact that the snow cone machine was down, it was a golden experience. In a matter of 5 hours, we managed to tour a cavern, and ride all of the fun rides including this super cool zip-line and a ridiculously scary swing off the side of the mountain; I needed to go to church after I rode that one! Definitely add the adventure park to your list of things to do if you have any intentions of visiting Glenwood Springs!

At this point in time, Jeremy and I had been on the road for a week and we were ridiculously exhausted! We left to adventure park, relaxed in the Hot Springs for a solid couple of hours and worked our way back to Denver. Not only was Glenwood Springs an enjoyable stop on our road-trip, it is a place that we will go back and visit multiple times a year. I can’t say enough great things about the hotel, the pool, staffing and convenience of activities surrounding the area.

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"Live through love, learn through patience, and accept kindness with gratitude"

:Liv

Relax, Unwind | Glenwood Hot Springs

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