The Giant Canyon Swing at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park swings riders out over the edge of Iron Mountain.

Photo by Mindy Leary

A thin, wavy limestone formation hangs from the ceiling of Glenwood Caverns. Our guide, Chloe, called the formation “cave bacon.”

Photo by Mindy Leary

A bowl of vegetable thukpa, a warm Nepalese noodle soup, made a filling lunch at Everest Nepal Restaurant between the Adventure Park and the hot springs.

Photo by Mindy Leary

The Defiance coaster twists along the mountainside at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, with the red cliffs across the valley providing a dramatic backdrop.

Photo by Mindy Leary

• 
• 
• 
• 

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — On a recent trip to Glenwood Springs, I discovered that the little town of about 10,000 people is a gem, despite having no valuable minerals to mine. And there are no other towns in the world called Glenwood Springs; it is truly one-of-a-kind.

My daughter and I headed west for a quick weekend getaway on August 22 and 23. We managed to cram quite a bit into two days, from live music and mountain rides to caves, hot springs, and some really good food.

Our first stop was Two Rivers Park, where we saw the Terrapin Roadshow featuring Grahame Lesh, son of the late Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. The music was rooted in the Grateful Dead songbook, and the park made a great setting for an outdoor show, with the mountains surrounding Glenwood Springs and the Colorado and Roaring Fork rivers meeting nearby.

After the show, we checked into a mid-grade motel. It was nothing fancy, but it met our needs.

I did get one unusual warning from another guest. I was told that a bear had climbed over the fence the night before, so we should be careful while hanging out in the courtyard.

Welcome to Colorado.

Up the mountain

The next morning, we headed to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.  A gondola carries visitors up Iron Mountain, leaving Glenwood Springs farther and farther below.

The views from the top were astounding. The Colorado River and Interstate 70 wind through the valley, surrounded by mountains in almost every direction.

Red Mountain across the valley was gorgeous. Its striking red color comes from iron oxide in the rock, essentially rust on a very large scale. Once at the top, we hit the rides.

The Alpine Coaster was a thrill. Riders control their own speed as the individual cars race down the mountainside. 

The mountain swing was exhilarating. Each time it swung out over the edge of the cliff, I screamed in playful terror.  

Then there were the roller coasters. Roller coasters are exciting enough on their own. Put one on top of a mountain with red cliffs behind it, and the experience gets considerably more interesting.

Going underground

After the rides, we headed underground for the Historic Fairy Caves tour. Our guide, Chloe, was witty and amusing. We followed her through narrow passages and chambers covered with formations that have grown one drop of water at a time. Some were nearly white. Others were brown, knobby, rippled, or streaked with minerals.

At one point, Chloe pointed out a thin, wavy piece of limestone hanging from the ceiling. She called it “cave bacon.” Once she named it, that was exactly what it looked like.

We saw stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, and all kinds of other strange shapes created as mineral-rich water slowly moved through the limestone.

The Fairy Caves first opened to tourists in 1895, when only about 800 feet of cave were known. Today, the Glenwood Caverns system contains more than 16,000 known feet.

The caves stay at a steady 52 degrees year-round. I also learned that the caverns were never used as dwellings by the Native Americans who lived in the region. That surprised me. With all that natural shelter inside the mountain, I would have assumed otherwise. Chloe said maybe they did not know about them or were fearful to enter the “underworld.”

At one point, the tour brought us outside onto the mountainside. Looking down at the valley put our location into perspective. Then it was back underground for more formations, dripping water, tight passages, and dark crevices.

Lunch at Everest

After coming down from the Adventure Park, we were hungry. We stopped at Everest Nepal Restaurant before heading to the hot springs. Colorful prayer flags hung overhead, while a cat robot waiter rolled around the dining room. It was an amusing combination of traditional decor and modern technology.

We started with crispy fried vegetable samosas served with dipping sauces. We also tried vegetable thukpa, a warm noodle soup filled with vegetables, and chicken tikka masala. To drink, we ordered an iced chai called “cheeya.”

After a morning spent running around a mountain and crawling through caves, it hit the spot.

Into the hot springs

Then we headed to Glenwood Hot Springs Resort. The resort is home to what it calls the world’s largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool, and it is enormous. The Grand Pool is 405 feet long and 100 feet wide and holds more than a million gallons of water.

But we weren’t there just to soak. We tried the Shoshone Chutes, a tubing river ride that twists and splashes its way downhill.

There was also a splash area and warmer pools for soaking. The Yampah Mineral Baths offered various temperatures, including a cold plunge for anyone looking to ease inflammation.

The hot mineral water begins as rain and snow in the surrounding mountains, then travels deep underground through fractured rock, where it is heated by the Earth, picking up minerals before rising back to the surface.

Glenwood Springs has an awesome way of mixing relaxation with adrenaline. We could soak in hot mineral water, then turn around and go barreling down a tubing chute.

In little more than 24 hours, we listened to live music beside the river, rode a gondola to the top of a mountain, raced down it on a coaster, swung over its edge, explored limestone caves, ate Nepalese food, and soaked in the springs that gave Glenwood its name.

And somewhere along the way, I learned what cave bacon is. That alone was probably worth the trip.