Glenwood Springs

: (proper noun) amazing, Adventure town, must see. The first minute we got there, it was awesome. We got to Ami’s Acres campground in the afternoon and after talking to the owner for a few minutes about which hot springs he recommended, he offered us an upgrade from our tent site to a cabin. No one had booked it that night and he figured since we were going to the springs, we wouldn’t want to waste time setting up the tent. We took him up on the offer, quickly unpacked and made dinner.
He had recommended Iron Mountain Hot Springs, as had one of my friends. It was a nice set up – 16 separate hot springs ranging in temperature from 99 to 107 degrees. The springs were right off the Colorado River, the view beautiful. We stayed for almost two hours, soaking and relaxing our tired muscles. There was a cool (temperature wise) pool to cool off in after the hot springs got too hot.

The following morning, we woke up early to get to Hanging Lake before the parking lot filled up. We got there by 8:05, and luckily the parking lot wasn’t too filled up yet. We packed our bag and set up for the 2.8 mile round trip hike. We would be ascending 1,000 feet within a mile so it was a pretty rough hike. The hike itself was beautiful; we traversed through a canyon with red hues and greenery.

As we got closer to the top, it became really steep. Once we got to the lake, it was breathtaking. The lake was recessed into a canyon and had several waterfalls flowing into it. The water had a beautiful blue hue and a fallen log running through the width of the lake.

After taking a bunch of pictures at Hanging Lake, we took another short trail to Spouting Rock. It was a waterfall, or several, with water coming out of the rocks. We were able to walk under the falls and feel the mist on our face.

It felt good after walking up that incline! We then started walking back down and made it back to the car in less than an hour. Now on the road to Aspen!