I Had an Underground Adventure at Glenwood Caverns in Glenwood Springs, Colorado

Glenwood Springs is lovely. I'd driven past this little Western Slope town at the end of Glenwood Canyon so many times, and I'd even stopped there, but I hadn't really explored it prior to a fun overnight visit a few weeks ago.

My travel companion and I had decided that a drive to the western side of Colorado from Denver in early February would be fun. Of course, this can also be a risky time of year to plan a trip across the Rockies, but if you time it right - which we did - the snow views along the way are incredible, and once you get past the ski town exits on I-70, you won't have to fight with too many crowds. The drive to Glenwood Springs from Denver is only two and a half hours - so it's a great spot for a short getaway.

Our first stop in town was Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. I'd been hearing about this place for many years, so I was glad to finally be able to check it out. It's been operating since 1999, but prior to 2003, it was only open for cave tours. Since then, they've added a number of cool amusement park rides and other amenities, and it bills itself as "America's Only Mountain Top Theme Park." It sits high above the town at 7,100' of elevation at the top of Iron Mountain, and you have to access it by an included ride on a gondola, which offers incredible views.

Of course, the caverns are far older than just a few decades! They're actually over a million years old, and people have been visiting them for well over 100 years. It's possible that Native Americans knew about these caves long before settlers came, but they were discovered in more recent times by a man named Charles A. Darrow in the late 1800s. He opened the caves for public tours in 1895 and expanded accessibility to them over the course of his ownership of the property. He installed electric lights in the caves in 1897, too - a truly amazing and wondrous feat at the time.

In 1917, the caves were closed to the public when World War I began, but the property was purchased by Steve and Jeanne Buckley in 1999. The couple restored the property, made it more easily accessible to visitors, and reopened it to the public. It's been a popular attraction ever since - especially since they added the amusement park rides.

Most of the rides are closed in the wintertime, but I personally was most interested in taking a cave tour anyway. There are two standard cave tours from which to choose - the Historic Fairy Cave Tour and the King's Row Tour. Both are included with standard admission. I wish we'd had time for both tours, but we didn't, so we chose the Fairy Cave Tour and got ready to go underground.

Both tours are walkable and well-lit, are about 40 minutes in length, and are led by an enthusiastic guide. Our guide was clearly very excited about caves, geology, and local history and was a wealth of knowledge about all three topics. It was clear that he loved working at Glenwood Caverns, and his passion excited us, too.

There was only one other couple on our tour so we had plenty of time and space to see everything and to ask questions, too. Our guide told us about the ways that Charles A. Darrow expanded the cave corridors to make it easier for visitors to explore the cave and to see its beauty. He talked about the challenges early visitors had in reaching the cave entrance - they had to ride a horse or walk on foot to reach the caves - and showed us the type of early "flashlight" Darrow used, which was simply a coffee can with holes punched in it with a candle inside. It was easy to see why the addition of electric lights was such a big deal!

Darrow and his family spent two years building a passageway through solid rock to connect parts of the cave that they wanted to show visitors. We walked through that passageway; way back then, the family was forced to remove nearly 1,000 tons of rock from the route by wheelbarrow as Darrow dynamited his way through the cave foot by foot. We were also led to an airy observation deck in the middle of the tour - appropriately named Exclamation Point - which offered panoramic views of Glenwood Springs and the river below.

We loved following our guide through the caves and learning about their formation and local geology. These caves provide a wonderful view of long-term natural history. Over 300 million years ago, western Colorado was covered by a shallow sea. As sea life died, their remains deposited calcium carbonate on the sea floor, which was compressed into limestone by the weight of the water above it. When the sea receded, the caves were created through erosion from rainwater and carbonic acid from decaying plants. Later, when the Colorado River cut through Colorado, its waters combined with sulfuric acid that bubbled to the surface, creating hot springs. Over time, this water created interesting and colorful formations in these caves. Caves are almost always created by water, but caves created by hot springs are rare.

Due to the unique beauty of these caves, Glenwood Caverns and nearby Iron Mountain Hot Springs were together declared a National Natural Landmark by Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in December of 2023.

There are so many thing things to marvel at in these caves. The walls of the cave are phosphorescent and glow under a black light. Our guide loaned us pen lights to momentarily "draw" on the cave walls - a very cool and memorable experiences.

The Fairy Cave Tour was spectacular and we were able to see so many different types of formations along the way. Although we didn't have time for the King's Row Tour, I certainly look forward to checking it out on my next visit. That tour includes a visit to the lower part of the cave. At the bottom of 127 steps, visitors can see even more formations - King's Row itself, named for the formations in it that look like chess pieces, is considered to be the most decorated cave room in the state.

Today, there are about three miles of passageway in this cave system, but experts believe there are likely at least ten miles of cave passageways inside Iron Mountain. It's one of the largest cave systems in Colorado - even just counting the portion that has been explored so far.

For even bigger cave enthusiasts, Glenwood Caverns offers Add On tours who wish to see more than simply the included Fairy Caves and King's Row Tours. The Wild Tour is a two-hour tour that includes crawling and shimmying through spaces as small as 18 inches wide into spaces that will only be illuminated by the group's headlamps.

If that sounds a little too intense for you, then you might instead enjoy the new-in-2024 Blacklight Cave Tour through Fairy Cave. Guests on this tour are given a UV blacklight flashlight to really explore the cave's beautiful phosphorescence.

All of these tours are surely a great time - I really enjoyed my Fairy Cave Tour. It surpassed my already high expectations for it, and I look forward to going back and trying the other tours in the future. I imagine that some visitors come to Glenwood Caverns for the rides only and skip the caverns themselves, but I really recommend taking one or more tours during your visit.

As for the rides, well, as I said - many are closed in the winter, but they all look very cool! The Defiance Roller Coaster includes a 102.3-degree free fall in just 56 seconds; it may look small, but it's surely quite a thrill. The Giant Canyon Swing launches riders nearly vertical at 50 mph over a 1,300 cliff edge. The Cliffhanger Coast is America's highest coaster at 7,160', the Glenwood Canyon Flyer is a circular, swings-style ride upon which you'll feel like you're flying, and the Crystal Tower Drop ride drops riders 110' onto the mountain at negative 2.5 Gs. Wow!

One ride that is open in the winter, though, is the Alpine Coaster, and I had a blast on this one. It's basically an Alpine slide on a track, and it goes a lot faster than I thought it would. After our cave tour but before our departure, I rode it no fewer than four times in a row. Woo! Even though the weather on this early February day was absolutely beautiful, there was no wait at all to ride.

This trip to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park was a blast! I learned so much about these caves, caves in general, and the geologic history of this part of Colorado. My companion and I had a great time and loved riding the Alpine Coaster, too. I look forward to visiting this spot again in the future, and I recommend it to everyone. Have a great time going underground in Colorado - it's certainly an experience that you'll never forget.