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Rocky Mountain Road Trip
Your Colorado Family Vacation Awaits
By April E. Clark
Thrill seekers can tour the darkened shafts of abandoned gold and silver mines, fly high in the blues skies above the Rocky Mountains in a hot air balloon or strap on their headlamps and take to the underground caves found deep inside local mountains.
The Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park overlooking Glenwood Springs, located northwest of Denver, is one such historic living cavern system that is open year-round to visitors. Once referred to as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the natural attraction features the historic Fairy Caves, filled with stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone formations as well as newly opened caverns with ceilings that reach higher than a five-story building. Visitors access the park with a scenic ride on the 4,300-foot Iron Mountain Tramway.
"The Fairy Caves along with the vapor caves and hot springs (dubbed the 'Spa in the Rockies' in the late 1800s), put Glenwood Springs on the map more than 100 years ago," says Marianne Virgili, executive director of the Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association. "From adventure to beauty, science and history, the Glenwood Caverns and historic Fairy Caves have something to offer everyone."
Mother Nature's wondrous beauty is found not only inside caves on Colorado's Western Slope, but also amid the area's Aspen tree-lined trails and rivers that grace the mountains and valleys. Visitors may mistakenly think they struck gold as they witness the annual utumn tradition of the turning of the Aspens in such quaint towns as rural Redstone or artsy Carbondale.