Colorado has more soakable hot springs than any state you can drive across in a day. Some sit beside a highway with a changing room and a snack bar. Others cost you an eight-mile hike at altitude and a permit booked months ahead.
Here are nine that are worth the trip, sorted by how much work they ask of you.
Roll up and soak
1. Glenwood Hot Springs, Glenwood Springs
The big one. A pool long enough to swim laps in, fed by mineral water, right off Interstate 70. It is the least wild option on this list and the easiest with kids or with a group that has mixed appetite for effort.
Go early or late. Midday in summer, the deck fills.
2. Iron Mountain Hot Springs, Glenwood Springs
A few minutes from the first one, and a different experience. Small individual pools stepped down towards the Colorado River, each at its own temperature. You move between them until you find the one you like.
Adults-only sections keep it quieter than its neighbour.
3. The Springs Resort, Pagosa Springs
Pagosa sits on a geothermal source famous for its depth, and the resort built a terrace of pools down to the San Juan River. Winter is the season here. Steam, snow on the far bank, and water hot enough that you plan your exit carefully.
A short walk or a rough road
4. Strawberry Park Hot Springs, Steamboat Springs
Stone-walled pools in a forested canyon, with a creek running alongside so you can regulate the heat yourself by moving nearer the cold water. It is one of the best-looking soaks in the state.
Two warnings. The access road turns rough in winter and often requires four-wheel drive with chains, or a shuttle. And the site goes clothing-optional after dark, which suits some visitors and not others. Check the policy before you drive up with a group.
5. Mount Princeton Hot Springs, Nathrop
A resort complex, but the reason to come is the creekside soaking. Hot water surfaces in the riverbed of Chalk Creek, and you build or borrow a rock pool at the temperature you want by letting cold creek water in.
Flow varies with the season. High water in spring drowns the pools.
6. Cottonwood Hot Springs, Buena Vista
Rustic, low-key, a set of rock-lined pools by a creek with none of the resort polish. It works well as a pairing with a day on the Collegiate Peaks.
7. Valley View Hot Springs, Moffat
Run by the Orient Land Trust, on the western flank of the Sangre de Cristos. Natural pools spread across a hillside, connected by trails, with long views over the San Luis Valley.
It is clothing-optional throughout and it is members-and-reservations only. That combination keeps the crowds down and the site intact. Book well ahead.
Earn it
8. Conundrum Hot Springs, near Aspen
The famous one. Around 8.5 miles each way, climbing to roughly 11,200 feet, ending at pools with a view straight up the valley to the peaks.
Everything about this trip needs planning:
- Permits are required to camp overnight and are booked through the federal recreation system. They go fast for summer weekends.
- Bear canisters are mandatory for food storage.
- Creek crossings can be serious during snowmelt.
- Altitude. Do not make this your first hike after flying in from sea level.
Done as a day hike it is a long 17 miles. Done as an overnight it is one of the best trips in the state.
9. Radium Hot Springs, near Kremmling
A primitive pool above the Colorado River, reached by a short but steep scramble from the trailhead. No facilities, no fee, no supervision. The river below runs cold and fast, and people have got into trouble here jumping in.
Go for the setting, keep the swimming for calmer water.
Practical rules for Colorado springs
The same handful of mistakes ruins these trips:
- Hydrate before and after. Hot water plus altitude dehydrates you faster than you notice. Alcohol in a hot pool at 9,000 feet is a bad plan.
- Limit your sessions. Twenty minutes in, then out to cool. Repeat rather than sit for an hour.
- Bring cash and a towel. Several of these sites are card-shy and none of them lend towels for free.
- Check the clothing policy for each site. Colorado runs the full range, and the rules can change with the hour of the day.
- Do not put your head under at undeveloped springs. Naturally warm water can carry organisms you do not want in your sinuses.
- Pack out everything. The primitive pools stay open because visitors leave them clean.
When to go
Winter is the best season for the developed resorts. Cold air, hot water, and snow all around is the whole point, and Pagosa, Glenwood and Steamboat are built for it.
Summer and early autumn are the seasons for the backcountry pools. Conundrum stays under snow well into the year, and the access roads to the rustic sites are far easier once they dry out.
Spring is the weak season. Snowmelt raises the creeks, which drowns the creekside pools and makes the crossings on the way to Conundrum genuinely dangerous.
Pairing them with the rest of the state
A soak works well as the recovery half of an active day. Colorado gives you plenty to recover from, and there is a rundown of one of the state’s headline drops over at https://www.thrillingspots.com/guide-to-bungee-jumping-royal-gorge-bridge-in-colorado/. If the long hike to Conundrum sounds like your kind of misery, this piece explains exactly why. And for a night in wilder shelter after the drive, thrillingspots.com/sleeping-in-a-cave-an-adventurers-guide covers the sleeping arrangements.