Day 8: Glenwood Springs, CO to Moab, UT

photo of Ada floating in pool in Glenwood Springs

We woke up bright and early to spend all morning in the Glenwood Hot Springs Resort pool again. It’s really hard to describe just how awesome this place is, so I’m letting photos and videos do most of the talking here.

photo of pools at Glenwood Springs
photo of river from bridge in Glenwood Springs, CO
photo of Ada holding an ice cream cone

Around 2pm, we left the resort and went just a minute up the road to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, where we quickly learned that the only way into the park itself was a gondola straight up a mountain.

photo from gondola up the mountain to Glenwood Caverns

Once at the top, Ada – a rock enthusiast – found the gemstone panning operation and got right to work.

Ada panning for gemstones
photo of Ada holding two large bags of rocks

Was two giant bags of rocks and teeth crystals enough for our girl? Nah. We had to get INSIDE the rocks. So, a cavern tour.

photo of Ada standing in front of door to cavern tour
photo of Ada inside a cavern talking to the tour guide

She was tour guide’s pet and had a million and a half questions about geology.

My favorite part of that video is that Zach didn’t know I was filming and he started posing for a still photo right as I stopped recording.

photo from inside Glenwood Cavern
photo of Ada inside cavern

Part of the cavern tour took us out onto a ledge/landing where we had a unique view of the mountains surrounding us . . . and the rides that were, uhhh, hanging off of them.

photo of Ada looking at mountains
photo of mountains near Glenwood Springs, Colorado

We did not do nearly the “adventure”ing that many people probably do when they come to the adventure park but we had an absolute blast and the views were incredible.

photo of sign warning passengers they can't retrieve anything lost on roller coaster

The big roller coaster was a little much for, well, any of us, let me know how you feel about it after watching this:

So Ada opted for the kiddie version and loved it enough to get on it five times in a row.

photo of Ada on child's roller coaster

With a drive to Utah still ahead of us, we took a few minutes to stop and listen to a musician named Suzzanne Paris sing “Here Comes the Sun” outside the general store, and then we hopped back on the gondola to get down the mountain to get to our car.

photo of highway in Glenwood Springs taken from the gondola

From Glenwood Springs, we had roughly 3 hours to get to our next overnight stop in Moab, UT. Again, every half hour felt like a completely different country.

https://twitter.com/bethdotlife/status/1553204526827671558
photo of red rocks outside Moab, UT

We had hoped to get a trip to our hotel pool in before we settled for the night, but it was closed when we arrived due to lightning strikes in the area.

Today’s title from “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles.

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beth wagner townsend

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