Glenwood Getaway

Sometimes, it's fun to be a tourist in your own state. And Colorado is a particularly beautiful state for it. This past weekend, my husband and I drove to Glenwood Springs, around three hours west of Denver, for a wonderful little getaway.

On the drive up on Friday afternoon, we stopped at 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirits, a place we came to know through their tasting room in Vail. But this stop was at their actual distillery in Gypsum, where I enjoyed a delicious praline Old Fashioned before the last leg of our journey to Glenwood Springs.

After breakfast Saturday morning, we went to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. It's essentially a small theme park built high on the mountainside overlooking the city; in fact, you have to ride a tram just to get to it. We rode several of the rides (including a dizzying swing that put you out in the open air overlooking the Colorado River). But we also cooled off underground with two different cave tours on site.

King's Row is more or less a large single chamber where you make your way down a long staircase, dropping a couple hundred feet (and about 10 degrees Fahrenheit), looking at all sorts of neat cave features along the way. The Fairy Cave tour is a guided tour through over a quarter mile of tunnels and rooms sprawling throughout the mountain. Highlights there included an outdoor exit to a natural terrace on the mountainside, a demonstration of the natural phosphorescent properties of the rock, and the comedy stylings of our tour guide (who clearly had done the same routine hundreds and hundreds of times, and was past giving it a full effort).

Glenwood Springs is known for its hot springs, which was the star of our afternoon stop: Iron Mountain Hot Springs. An outdoor spa resort with over 30 pools of varying temperatures, you can amble from place to place, relaxing. The clouds came out just as we arrived, which turned what otherwise might have been a too-hot afternoon into a perfect time to relax. We stuck mostly to the "adults only" side of the resort, which was not only more sedate, but also served adult beverages. A frozen drink to accompany a hot soak was a perfect way to unwind.

We were especially glad not to have planned the spa later in the evening when a torrential rain opened up to drown the city at just before sunset. We were dry inside at dinner and got to enjoy the sound through the propped-open restaurant entrance.

Sunday morning brought one more excursion before our drive home: we hiked the trail at the nearby Hanging Lake. It's a steep 1.2 miles up a mountain, but your reward is a cliffside lake so beautiful it feels like it came out of a fantasy novel. And a short walk up and behind the lake takes you to Spouting Rock, a tall waterfall that both pours over and leaks through the mountainside, in an equally fantastical display. The hike back definitely left my feet and knees aching, but it was a wonderful cap on a wonderful weekend.

Even for those Coloradans who at least occasionally travel around the state, Glenwood Springs is often just a "place on the way to Aspen." But it's very much a worthwhile destination of its own, and I really enjoyed our visit.