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Glenwood Springs
July 27 2012
Thursday (July 27): Glenwood Springs

My parents and I had been thinking of going on a short hiking trip this week but a couple of issues prevented it so instead my mom and I decided to go on a day trip to Glenwood Springs and see the caves there, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. While the Glenwood Caverns first opened for tours early in the 1900's, they later closed for decades and only re-opened fairly recently. But, as much as I love caves, between my times in Arizona, Japan, and the like, I never got around to visiting.
Since their re-opening, the caverns have expanded into an entire adventure park. Once we arrived in Glenwood Springs (which ended up being a much quicker drive than we expected), we headed to the ticket counter. While you can get individual tickets for the various attractions, you can also get a day pass which gets you into just about everything. Though, oddly enough, the cave itself costs an extra $5. Anyway, after getting our passes we got on the gondola (the cave is near the top of a mountain) and rode up to the adventure park.
We had some time before our cave tour so we took a moment to admire the awesome views and then headed for the rides. I was impressed, with a bit more work they could have a small theme park up there. We started out on a zipline (which naturally went off the side of the mountain). It was nice, but would have been more fun if they just let you hang (like a regular zip line) instead of sticking you in a chair. Then it was on to the best ride in the park, the Alpine Slider. I could only get a picture while being towed back up to the top at the end, but it should give you some idea of what it looks like. Basically, you get in a little one or two person cart and head down the side of the mountain on a rail. There's lots of bumps, twists, and turns and it's a really long track. Even better, you can control your speed, making it a relaxing slide, a speedy thrill ride, or anywhere inbetween. Really great ride all around. Moving on, we found our way to the roller coaster. For a fairly small coaster, it was actually quite a lot of fun and offered some great views from the top. Plus, it had a really short line so we ended up riding it three times in a row.
After regaining our footing, it was about time for our cave tour. There's two parts to the tour. You start off going on the same tour that visitors were taken on when the cave was first opened. Our guide was pretty good and filled us in on the history of the caverns as we went. That part was nice, though not especially impressive compared to some of the other caves I've visited. The second area, however, was on a different level entirely. It's much more open and full of stalagmites, stalactites, and other cool formations. As a note, if you make reservations in advance there's a special (and more expensive tour) that takes you into other portions of the cave (with a good bit of crawling and squeezing through tight spaces). I should give that a try sometime if I get the chance...
Anyway, my mom and I grabbed a quick lunch then went to ride the Alpine Slider again and check out the rest of the attractions. There was a small maze, a climbing wall (I made it to the top off the hard course and my mom the medium), several 4D movies (3D plus moving seats), a virtual wagon ride, and even laser tag (I won the round). There was also a few kiddy rides, which we skipped, a giant swing over the side of the mountain (which was unfortunately closed that day), and a bungee jump (which we skipped since it cost extra).
Once we'd had our fill of rides we figured that, as long as we were in Glenwood Springs, we should visit the hot springs. It's a huge hot springs pool complete with lap lines, diving boards, and a couple of water slides. In my opinion, there are better hot springs in Colorado (the ones in Ouray and Steamboat Springs, for example) but that doesn't mean I didn't have a good time.
It was getting a bit late by the time we finished swimming so we decided to go out for supper before driving home. A combination of a tourist map and Yelp led us downtown (they've got a nice little old fashioned downtown, by the way) and after looking at some menus we settled on The Pullman. Gotta say, they had a really interesting menu. My mom had Colorado bass with an unusual kind of pasta and carrot ginger sauce. I got duck meatloaf (yes, you read that right) with creamed spinach, shiitake gravy, and pickled onion straws. And for dessert? A strawberry rhubarb crumble with sweet basil ice cream. Though little odd, everything tasted great and it made for an excellent ending to an excellent day.
Since Colorado is home for me, it's a little hard to think like a tourist but a day like this reminded me just how much awesome stuff there is to see and do here. While I won't really have time on this trip, I should try and do a bit more touring next time I'm here.





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