Glenwood Springs

This was my favorite day of the whole vacation.  It was just one of those perfect days, if such a thing exists on earth.  We hopped in the car and started the 60 mile trek west of Vail to a town called Glenwood Springs.  The drive was beautiful; I think the key to making driving and commuting more fun is to have scenery as beautiful as the Rocky Mountains everywhere.  Since I was driving poor Kyle had to keep taking pictures with my phone because I just wanted to capture it all. 

Once we arrived we started our day at Glenwood Springs, a mineral hot springs.  They have two pools – a large warm pool that stays at about 96 degrees and a really hot pool which stays around 105 degrees.  We spent most of the morning wading in the larger pool but we switched over to the smaller hot pool several times and it was extremely relaxing.  There was a light cool breeze outside so it felt great to be in the warm water.  It was also very therapeutic.  We also read in lounge chairs beside the pool and I did my best to hold in my ugly crying while reading “No Fault in Our Stars” by John Green.  Fantastic book but ugly crying happened more than once throughout the course of the book.

Around lunchtime we split up and my parents went into town for lunch and Kyle and I headed to Yampah Spa to check out the intriguing vapor caves we’d heard about.   I was nervous about it because I am super claustrophobic but some life experiences sound too cool to walk away from because you are nervous.  Thankfully the caves were not low or cramped and the access to them was via stairs so I was able to enjoy the caves with no panic attacks, victory!  They warn you to only go down in the caves for 10-15 minute increments and to come up for water in between.  They had a lovely solarium with lounge chairs to rest on while you recovered before heading back into the caves.  The caves were amazing.  It was a series of three chambers with increasing temperatures as you moved further into the caves.  The first time we stepped into the first chamber the heat took my breath away a bit.  Even having taken hot yoga and living in Georgia in the summers this heat was on another level.  Once I slowed my breathing and adjusted to breathing in the hotter air it felt wonderful.  I don’t sweat much even when I did high intensity exercise so it felt amazing to release all those toxins.  I could feel the tension seeping out of my muscles and felt extremely relaxed.  I’m not sure how people manage to spend all day there but we thoroughly enjoyed our three trips down to the caves.  We spent about 10-15 minutes per trip so about 45 minutes total and I felt so much lighter and more relaxed when we left.  If I lived near a place like that I’d go at least once a month, especially since it was $18 per person for a day pass to access the caves and spa facilities. 

That alone would have made for an excellent day but we iced the cake with an amazing (and super hard) hike up to hanging lake.  Everyone we met talked about this great hike near the town of Glenwood Springs called Hanging Lake.  You can only access it from one side of the interstate but it’s truly a gem and I’m glad we found it.  The books say it’s a lovely 1.27 mile hike.  Which is true but as you walk up to the trail the signs note that it is a very difficult hike and have some warnings/instructions.  After conquering the caves I was feel up for the challenge so we started the ascent.  And ascend we did, 1.27 miles was accurate but they left off that it’s all straight up a mountain.  It’s a very popular trail so it was easy to follow and there were lots of other explorers making their way up.  As we passed people coming down the trail they reassured us that the view was worth it which was a nice boost to keep us climbing upward.  When we made it to the top we were not disappointed.  It’s a beautiful crystal blue lake that has a series of waterfalls that feed into it including one called Sprouting Rock.  We sat on a bench for a few minutes and just soaked in the sunlight, the view, and the sounds of the waterfalls.  Then we of course took out the camera and did our best to capture how beautiful it was.  Before heading back down we took a small side path to climb up a bit further to see Sprouting Rock.  I’ve not seen a whole lot of waterfalls in my life so I was duly impressed.  Between being reenergized by the beautiful view and the much less cumbersome downhill hike going down was a breeze.   Then we understood why everyone we passed on the way up looked so happy. 

After such an exciting day we headed back to Vail and snuck in a quick nap before heading out to dinner.  It was a day I’ll remember for a long time and I’m so glad I got to share in such fun adventures with my husband.  I was so proud of him for taking on that hike with me!