Our
HOT SPRINGS TOUR 2003
Our trip started in Boulder, Colorado Wednesday February 26, 2003 and ended March 4, 2003.
We visited Glenwood Springs, Hot Sulphur Springs and Steamboat Springs. There is a map at the end of the photographs.
We started out on Wednesday and went over Loveland Pass
I couldn’t resist a little
reminiscing and we stopped at the Keystone Environmental Education Center to look at the
little cabin I lived in while I was working there. I was happy to see that the sauna we
built by the creek was still standing. My brother Sean and I have taken a sauna here and
jumped in the icy creek. Yeehaa!
The roads were in good shape and we hit
falling snow at Vail Pass. We got to Glenwood Springs and the Hotel Colorado in the
afternoon and got our first dip into the hot water that Nature provides as a special gift.
Our room at the Historic Hotel Colorado was nice with a view into a courtyard that was
filled with falling snow. We had the same view from our table for breakfast.
We had about 3-4 inches of new snow that day as we headed out for a hike on McClure
Pass.
McClure Pass was very pleasant and we stopped and shopped in Redstone on our way back.
We had dinner with Mark and Laurie Munger in El Jebel that evening at an excellent Thai restaurant.
The next day was a long beautiful drive through a winter wonderland on roads that were sometimes dirt. We went through State Bridge, that is a little spot on the road where I spent a hot summer night on one of my field trips and was rocketed out of bed by a train that was passing in the night only a few yards away. I had gone to bed not knowing I was right by the railroad tracks.
Hot Sulphur Springs was a wonderful place, with 21 pools and a lot of very hot water.
How odd to see steaming water and green moss with icicles.
The many pools with varying temperature and terrific views were very relaxing.
My favorite was the pool with the stream of hot water that would provide
a pleasant neck and back massage.
One of the private pools was by the river, but we never got to use it.
Hard though it may be to believe, the outside temperature was about 6° F. But the water was warm enough to make a snow scrub pleasant for one of us.
I think Maria liked the super hot pool
the best, but they were all magical.
We had a wonderful dinner in Winter Park and ended our stay with another visit to the
hot pools and a hike through the Fraser Experimental Forest at one of Maria’s old
stomping grounds.
Onward to Steamboat Springs and the
downtown hot springs that were just across the street from the motel. The water in the
elongate heart shaped pool was the hotest and was carbonated with thousands of tiny
bubbles rising in the water and a film of tiny bubbles covered our skin in just a few
minutes.
We had a wonderful dinner with Ben & Kathy and Kelly Northcutt that evening. The
next day we drove to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs north of town and hiked (snowshoed
and skied) the drainage below the hot springs before we jumped in.
The area is much nicer than when I first visited years ago.
It was a beautiful trip and having a traveling companion to share the journey was a joy I shall never forget. This is just the beginning.
With the right attitude, even the road grime and ice can conspire to create beauty.
Maps of the trip:
