I had some pre-COVID Amtrak points I needed to use up before they expired, so I decided to take a trip to Glenwood Springs (that was as far as my points would take me). Bruce dropped me off at the RTD station and I took the light rail downtown to Denver's Union Station (so much easier than trying to drive through early morning rush hour traffic). Like many historic stations, the Denver terminal has been beautifully restored. It's basically been turned into a giant food court, but at least they kept a lot of the period features.
The California Zephyr actually starts in Chicago, passes through Denver, and then goes all the way to San Francisco. But rather than heading straight west, the train went north out of Denver to Winter Park. Even though it's May, it started snowing very heavily. If you were sitting on the left-side of the train (which I was), you could see out, but the people on the right side of the train just saw a blizzard of blowing snow.
Luckily, by the time we got to Glenwood Springs, the snow had stopped, the temperature warmed up, and the sun was shining. The only bad thing about riding Amtrak post-COVID is that they tend to cater to the sleeper car passengers. Six of the cars on the train were devoted to sleeper compartments, while just 2 cars carried all the coach passengers. Needless to say, the coach section was packed.
Glenwood Springs is known for 2 things. One, it's the burial site of Doc Holliday - a gambler, gunfighter, and close friend of Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday actually started out life as a dentist but couldn't make a go of it. He's better known in the history books for his role in the gunfight at the OK Corral.
The second thing Glenwood Springs is known for are their hot springs. The main reason Doc Holliday ended up in Glenwood Springs was because he got tuberculosis. Back in those days, people thought the hot springs had special curative powers. Unfortunately for Doc Holliday, they didn't. He was only 36 when he died. The Glenwood Hot Springs right across the river from the Amtrak station actually looks like a giant swimming pool only with very dark and smelly water (it's a rotten egg smell from the sulfur in the water). I brought my swimsuit with me on this trip, but even though the water was supposed to be warm, an outdoor temperature of 50° seemed a little chilly for swimming to me.
Bruce drove up the second day and we went hiking. While Glenwood Springs is beautiful countryside (that was the view outside our hotel room), it's basically a valley surrounded by mountains. So most of the hiking trails head in one direction... UP!
We went about a mile up one trail before I finally called it quits. You can see from the background in this photo we weren't anywhere near the top. I'm more of a rail-trail girl.
When we got back down, we found a flatter trail that went through town. Funnily enough, this trail is called the 12th Street Ditch. I didn't care what it was called; at least it was flat.
After that rigorous hike, we decided to stop off at the local brew pub for an early dinner. The beer here was amazing. So good in fact, that we actually bought a 6-pack to bring back home. Bruce had the special of the day - an elk burger. I stuck with something less exotic - the fish & chips.
On the drive back home, we stopped at a rest area along Glenwood Canyon. The canyon is so narrow is some places that in order to "widen" I-70 to 4 lanes, they had to stack 2 lanes on top of the other 2. You can see the burnt tree stumps on the hillside from all the wildfires they had last year. The vegetation seems to be filling in nicely though.
There's a bike path that runs alongside the Colorado River that I wanted to check out. It's incredibly beautiful and the bike trail is paved for 14 miles outside of Glenwood Springs. I think I'll have to make a trip back in the near future, but bring my bike along with me. Biking along a flat trail is much preferable to scaling a mountain.
