Fact Sheet
Hot Springs In Ski Country
Skiing and a soak in hot springs go together like hot cocoa and
milk…the mere presence of one makes the other even more
tempting. In Colorado's ski country you're never far from the
some of the country's biggest, most secluded or most intimate hot
springs. The following is a listing of the best hot springs
Colorado has to offer.
Strawberry Park Hot Springs
Near Steamboat Ski Resort
Steamboat Springs, CO - about 3 hours from Denver
Secluded mountain setting with nicely developed pools. Nicely
developed native stone soaking pools next to creek. This is a
beautifully picturesque hot springs with a colorful history and is
one of the most pleasant rural settings in Colorado. Owned at one
time by the city of Steamboat Springs, it became an administrative
nuisance because of the bawdy crowds that frequented the springs.
The locals spin yarns about wild parties involving copious amounts
of intoxicants and mattresses strewn about in a haphazard commune.
Images of Woodstock and a less-inhibited generation are easy to
conjure upon hearing the colorful stories. Still, the springs are
delightfully enticing, and the interesting history only adds to its
charm.
© Copyright Carl Wambach Published by Falcon Publishing. All Rights
Reserved.
Glenwood Hot Springs
Near Sunlight Mountain / Aspen
Glenwood Springs, CO - about 4 hours from Denver
Fully developed, premier hot springs and spa of Colorado. Large
pools, athletic club, restaurants, and hotels. If you had a
speedboat, you could almost water ski in the larger of the two
pools at Glenwood Hot Springs, and hardly anyone might notice. At
405 feet long and 100 feet wide, it is not only the largest natural
hot springs-fed pool in Colorado, it is one of the largest anywhere
on the planet. Size is not the measure of grandeur, but certainly
this qualifies as Colorado's premier hot springs resort for a host
of good reasons. In a world of marketing hype and overblown claims
to greatness, Glenwood Hot Springs is genuinely world class. It is
a destination that can claim a long and impressive list of visitors
including Ute Indian chiefs, early miners, gunfighters, and
American presidents. Some of the world's most wealthy, famous, and
infamous people have spent time appreciating Glenwood.
© Copyright Carl Wambach Published by Falcon Publishing. All Rights
Reserved.
Eldorado Hot Springs
Near Eldora Ski Area
Boulder, CO - about 45 minutes from Denver
Historically significant, fully developed swimming pool and bottled
water business. Swimming pool, changing rooms, and snack bar.
Bottled water plant. In the history of hot springs, artesian wells,
and cool-water springs throughout Colorado, few waters have nearly
the colorful background that Eldorado Springs can claim. As a work
of nature, Eldorado Springs has bubbled happily for countless ages,
long before recorded history. The Colorado Ute Indians found this
setting to their liking, and probably for the same reasons that we
do today. The ancestors of the Utes, in whatever hominid form they
took, doubtless watered at the very same place.
© Copyright Carl Wambach Published by Falcon Publishing. All Rights
Reserved.
Indian Springs
*On the way into Denver from several resorts: Arapahoe Basin,
Breckenridge, Copper, Keystone, Loveland, and Winter Park
Idaho Springs, CO - about 30 minutes from Denver
Fully developed historical resort with mud baths and pool. Pool,
lodging, restaurant, and lounge. The thought that first comes to
mind when I think of Indian Springs is convenience. It is but a
half-hour drive from Colorado's largest city, and directly on the
route that thousands of alpine skiers drive every day in the mass
winter migration to and from ski areas west of Denver. It is also
unique in that it offers mud baths of the type more common in
Europe. With a long and varied history dating back to the middle of
the nineteenth century, this is an interesting and comfortable
destination. Soda Creek, which runs near the resort, once marked
the neutral ground between the Ute and Arapaho Indians, who did not
always get along famously. The hot springs were an accepted "free
zone" where both tribes could take advantage of the warm, healing
influences of the mineral waters bubbling out of the ground,
without fear of confrontation.
© Copyright Carl Wambach Published by Falcon Publishing. All Rights
Reserved.
