GO! ROAD TRIP: Destination Glenwood Springs

GLENWOOD SPRINGS • A woman on one end of the hot springs pool called to her boyfriend on the other end … using a cell phone.

“I’m the one waving,” she said.

The idea of communicating with somebody on the other end of this pool without a cell phone or megaphone would be ludicrous. According to Glenwood Hot Springs, its main pool is the biggest in the world, measuring 405 feet long — more than two blocks, considerably longer than a football field. It’s the crown jewel of a town that has engendered spa culture for centuries, since Ute Indians discovered hot, mineral-rich waters and called them “yampah,” meaning “big medicine.”

White men caught on to the medicine in the late 1800s and built a hot springs pool, and soon medical tourists flocked west to take in the waters. Originally called Defiance, the town at the confluence of the Colorado and Roaring Fork rivers became a center of commerce as well as infirmary.

In some ways, it was a typical rough Western town, with more than its share of saloons, brothels and outlaws. In fact, infamous gunslinger Doc Holliday, suffering from tuberculosis, came to town for the alleged medicinal springs. They didn’t do him much good. He died in 1887, and his gravestone sits in Linwood Cemetery, which overlooks the town.

The town survived Holliday and the end of the TB epidemic, and today serves as an outstanding summer or winter family destination.

For some, it’s a hot-soak on the way to a more upscale getaway in Aspen. But for others, it’s an affordable alternative, a place that has built on its spa heritage with a whimsical sense of adventure, an artistic bent, and a healthy obsession with all things wet and wild.

big waters

Glenwood Hot Springs

401 N River St., Glenwood Springs, 1-800-537-7946; hotspringspool.com

A smaller therapy pool, kept at about 104 degrees, sits on one side of the massive main pool, which is kept at a just-past-lukewarm 90-93 degrees.

Kids love to splash around in the open expanse. They also love the giant (336- and 369-foot-long) water slides, and there are two here worthy of Water World.

One is a tube slide, the kind that accommodates an inner tube. There are regular single tubes as well as double tubes, so you and your kids can scream together. The other slide, which you ride in without a tube, is wicked fast, and my wife still won’t forgive me for talking her into it.

Summer rates are $16.75-$18.25, $10.75-$11.25 for kids 3-12 (2 and younger free). Evening-only rates are less.

Slides are an extra $7.50 for an eight-ride ticket.

LITTLE WATERS

Spa of the Rockies

Located at Glenwood Hot Springs; for prices and menus, go to hotspringspool.com and click “The Spa.”

An old bathhouse that once housed the Hot Springs Lodge towers over the pools. Thankfully, somebody had an idea: Wouldn’t this be a great place for an upscale spa with wraps, manicures, mineral soaks and the whole bit? Two years ago, the $10 million Spa of the Rockies opened here, and it’s very zen and very lovely, and in between treatments you can chill on a private balcony overlooking the pool. There’s a full-size athletic club next door.

Yampah Spa Vapor Caves

709 E. Sixth St., Glenwood Springs, 1-970-945 0667; yampahspa.com

Just the idea of vapor caves sounds like something out of Batman. Renovated a decade ago, the caves are like natural saunas, and they’re combined with state-of-the-art spa treatments.

WHITEWATERS

Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park

glenwoodwhitewaterpark.org

Located in West Glenwood, immediately upstream of the Midland Avenue Bridge, this whitewater park was built in 2008 — and for serious kayakers who can paddle through the whitewater features, then paddle back and do them again.

DRY ADVENTURES

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

51000 Two Rivers Plaza Road, Glenwood Springs, 1-970-945-4228; glenwoodcaverns .com

What started as a modest cave tour has grown into a mountaintop family theme park. It still has tours of a cool, wet cave with large rooms and fascinating formations, but now a gondola takes you up to a nifty faux-Western town full of rides, attractions and animatronic cowboys.

Among the premier rides:

Alpine Coaster — It’s the opposite of most roller coasters. Instead of a conveyer belt that takes you to the top of the drop, you start with a drop, weaving your way on a white-knuckle serpentine through the woods, and then a conveyer belt takes you back.

Giant Canyon Swing — If you’re at all afraid of heights, forget about it. This huge, high-speed swing puts you 1,300 feet into Glenwood Canyon. Gee, those rafters on the Colorado River look like yellow beetles.

Kids also will love the laser tag, 3-D movies, climbing wall, mechanical bull, bungee trampolines and the maze.

Summer rates are $39, $35 for kids 3-12. You also can go cheaper by paying a la carte for rides and attractions.

Glenwood Canyon Zipline Adventures

1308 County Road 129, 1-800-958-6737; glenwoodcanyonzipline.com

The only thing missing from Glenwood Caverns? A zipline, of course. Zipline Adventures, just east of Glenwood, has you covered with three 350-foot-long lines that take you across the Colorado River and back. They also have rafting trips, a ropes course and climbing wall. Prices start at $32 per person.

MUSIC

The arts play a big part in life in Glenwood. You can see it in the murals throughout the pretty, historical downtown. And you can see it in the constant flow of free outdoor concerts. We caught one of the Summer of Jazz concerts, which run 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Two Rivers Park. The music was great and so was the scene, with grandparents and grandkids, disc throwers, wine and workers with sombreros collecting money to help pay the band. (The series is also funded by a local philanthropist.)

BEDS

The Hot Springs Lodge, now located across the street from the hot springs pool at 415 E. Sixth St., remains the most convenient stay. Rates of $139 to $319 include pool passes.

But if you’re looking for more character, we recommend two nice, also nearby, historical hotels: The Colorado Hotel and The Denver Hotel.

Both are diamonds in the rough and, with some renovations, could be on par with the Cliff House or the Brown Palace. As it is, they’re funky, eccentric and loaded with antiques and personality.

The Colorado Hotel, which has one of the grandest lobbies in the state, is at 526 Pine St., and rates range from $109 to $169.

The Hotel Denver, which has a friendly and helpful staff (they’re also pet-friendly and will fuss over your pooch), features gorgeous stained-glass work and a cool lobby atrium that incorporates the outer walls of the original building. The attached brewpub has terrific microbrews and fine burgers. It’s at 402 Seventh St., and rates range from $139 to $339 (suite with rooftop patio).