Glenwood Springs and Redstone

We left Silverton on Monday afternoon and headed north east to Glenwood Springs. We couldn't find a campsite that night, so we spent the night in the Walmart parking lot. Not very glamorous, but we were out of options. We noticed there was a crazy amount of traffic in the area and found out they are replacing a bridge in town, making the detour route super congested during rush hour. So, Tuesday morning we called around and found a campsite at a campground right in town, which wouldn't usually be our first choice, but with the bridge construction, we felt like it was the best option. We went to the new hot springs in town on Tuesday and visited the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on the Wednesday. The hot springs in Pagosa are much better in our opinion, but  he kids loved the Adventure Park. It's a small park, but since it wasn't crowded, they were able to ride all of of the rides so many times. We got there just as the park was opening and stayed until it closed. As we were leaving I realized that we've moved on to a new phase of life - even last year we wouldn't have considered staying at an amusement park all day - the risk of melt downs would have been too high!  The coolest part about the park is that it's on top of the mountain. You have to ride a gondela to get up to the park, and several of the rides go out over the edge of the mountain, which isn't my favorite but Big Sister and Little Bud both thought that was so cool!

On Thursday we decided to check out a hot spring we'd read about that was right off the road on the river. The kids loved it!  We also drove a little farther south to Marble (we were there a few weeks ago, but drove in from the opposite way). On our way back to Glenwood Springs, we stopped at some interesting beehive looking ovens on the side of the road (turns out they were used to burn off impurities to make a high quality coal called "coke") and noticed that there was a little town across the street. We drove through and found a dispersed camping site on the river in the national forest just outside of town. We decided to pack up the motorhome and head back for a few days.  Redstone is such a quaint, idealic town. It was originally a planned community for the coal workers in the area (in the early 1900s), and the community has worked hard to preserve the history of the town.  There's a hotel, bed and breakfast, national forest camp ground and a few other rental properties that help keep the area businesses going - they have a tackle shop, general store, art gallery and the coolest little antique shop. They also have a beautiful park on the river with picnic tables made of marble (!) and a musem. Most of the houses in town are historic and have been beautifully preserved. The flower gardens around town were amazing; lots of water and temperate summers make gardening so much easier!  We will definitely plan to visit Redstone again 😊

Fun at Glenwood Springs Adventure Park:

 

  

Penny Hot Springs:

This kid loves warm water!  

Marble Quary in Marble 

  

The view from the river by our campsite