Glenwood Springs, CO

Downtown Glenwood's consistent anchor restaurant — a scratch kitchen that won 20 local choice awards and uses seasonal, locally sourced ingredients for comfort classics like prime rib and beef Wellington alongside more creative seasonal dishes. The interior retains the old supper-club feel with a piano bar that still has live music on weekend evenings.

A chef-driven urban bistro on Restaurant Row that changes its menu seasonally and punches well above what you would expect for a mountain corridor town. It was named to Esquire's Best New Restaurants list and has maintained that ambition — the roasted bone marrow, truffled pork rinds, and natural wine list are the kind of thing you would find in a Denver Highlands neighborhood spot.

Counter-service spot near the Roaring Fork River doing creative street tacos, Colorado-raised hot dogs, and cocktails in a casual, no-fuss setting. The taco fillings rotate and skew toward global-fusion styles — Korean beef, fish taco with pickled cabbage, roasted vegetable — rather than Tex-Mex convention. Line moves fast and the outdoor seating is pleasant in warm months.

A downtown Mexican restaurant that focuses on regional authenticity rather than Tex-Mex convention — tamales, mole, seafood dishes, and a margarita that locals use as their benchmark for the genre. Busy at lunch with the working local crowd, quieter at dinner, and reasonably priced given the quality.

A sit-down barbecue restaurant on the downtown strip doing brisket, pulled pork, smoked sausage, and the kind of burnt-end mac and cheese that convinces you the side is the point. Not a roadside shack — the dining room is proper and the menu includes smoked salmon and vegetable options that go beyond standard BBQ convention.

A classic American diner open all day in a simple storefront, doing breakfast and lunch the straightforward way — eggs any style, pancakes, hash browns, burgers, and sandwiches. Draws a loyal local crowd on weekend mornings and functions as the kind of neighborhood anchor that makes residents feel their town is a real place rather than a resort.

A family-owned brewpub on the east side of downtown that produces a dozen beers on tap alongside a broad pub menu of burgers, sandwiches, and flatbreads. The outdoor patio has a view of the canyon walls. The beer quality is consistent and the food is honest — not trying to be anything other than what it is, which is exactly what it should be after a long trail or river day.

A bakery in downtown Glenwood known primarily for its cronuts — laminated croissant-doughnut hybrids that Travel + Leisure named Best Donuts in Colorado. The shop also does glazed, old-fashioned, cinnamon rolls, and bear claws. Lines form early on weekend mornings and the best items sell out by mid-morning.

A beloved breakfast and brunch institution in Carbondale (17 miles south) that has been doing made-from-scratch morning food since 1975. The whole-wheat pancakes, French toast, and hash are made in a historic building with the kind of unhurried service that makes sense in a small-town setting. Worth the drive from Glenwood if you are already heading toward Aspen.

A cozy Mediterranean wine bar in Carbondale focused on small plates meant to be shared — vibrant mezze, seasonal vegetables, fresh flatbreads, and a carefully curated wine list that skews natural and European. The atmosphere is warm and unpretentious for what is genuinely ambitious cooking in a small mountain town.

A local favorite on Main Street in Carbondale for Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian dishes made with real craft — the pad thai is the anchor, but the curries, rice bowls, and pho are equally consistent. Long-running spot with the kind of regulars who order off-menu because they trust the kitchen.

A 3-mile round-trip hike up Dead Horse Creek canyon to a National Natural Landmark — a turquoise lake perched on a limestone shelf fed by Spouting Rock waterfall. The trail gains 1,000 feet through enormous boulders and canyon walls; the final approach to the lake is the payoff. One of the most photographed spots in Colorado, which means the permit system is real and necessary.

A 16-mile paved multi-use path through the narrow walls of Glenwood Canyon, running alongside the Colorado River and the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Built into the canyon wall during the I-70 construction in the 1990s, it is an engineering feat as well as a trail — the bridges and tunnels are part of the experience. Accessible for all fitness levels, with turnaround options anywhere along the route.

A canyon side trail that branches off the main canyon path into a narrow tributary gorge — less traveled than Hanging Lake and requiring no permit. The creek gorge has a dramatic quality of its own, with vertical limestone walls, creek crossings, and lush riparian growth. About 5 miles round-trip to the upper canyon.

A 6.4-mile loop that climbs the south rim of Glenwood Canyon, earning views down the 1,500-foot walls to the Colorado River below. More challenging than the canyon-floor trail — 1,600 feet of gain through ponderosa pine and scrub oak — and significantly less crowded than Hanging Lake, even on summer weekends. The rim views are a different angle on the canyon that most visitors never see.

A moderately challenging out-and-back trail that climbs to the summit of Red Mountain north of town, with views across the Roaring Fork Valley and back toward the Elk Mountains. About 7 miles round-trip with 1,800 feet of gain. The trail begins near the confluence of the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers, providing a different ecological feel from the limestone canyon trails.

Twelve miles south of town, Sunlight Mountain Resort opens its 700-plus acres to hiking and mountain biking in summer, with lift-accessed terrain for bikes and a network of trails through wildflower meadows and aspen groves that are essentially uncrowded. In winter it is a genuine local ski hill — lower prices, no lift lines, and terrain that rewards people who actually ski rather than people who like being seen skiing.

Reached by aerial gondola from downtown, this mountaintop complex combines guided tours of the Fairy Caves (commercial cave tours here since 1897) with an amusement park at 7,100 feet — canyon swing, alpine coaster, multiple roller coasters, tower drop, and laser tag. The cave tours are the original reason the place exists and are worth doing for their own sake; the rides are the bonus that makes it a full-day option for families.

The world's largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool, open daily, with two pools, waterslides, and a splash zone. The main pool is 405 feet long — long enough that it takes a moment to register the scale when you first see it. The resort also has a spa, fitness center, and hotel on-site. Swimming in a thermal pool surrounded by canyon walls with the Colorado River rushing past is a legitimately unusual experience.

Sixteen individual soaking pools on a terraced bench above the Colorado River, each at a different temperature and facing the river and canyon walls. A quieter, more intimate alternative to the large pool — no lap swimming, no slides, primarily soaking. The riverside location on the edge of downtown makes it easy to combine with a walk on the canyon path.

Half-day whitewater trips through Shoshone Rapids (Class III-IV) in Glenwood Canyon, where the canyon walls rise 1,500 feet above the Colorado River. Multiple outfitters run the same section with similar equipment; the canyon itself is the attraction — nowhere else in Colorado do you raft through a 2,000-foot deep narrow canyon alongside an interstate highway and a railroad.

A dinner theater on the main strip that has been running comedy-musical variety shows for decades. The performances are campy, local, and irreverent — the kind of entertainment that works best when you do not take it too seriously. Shows mix live music, comedy sketches, and audience participation in a format that has not changed much since the 1980s, which is either charming or dated depending on your angle.

A production brewery and taproom on Grand Avenue focused on spontaneously fermented sour ales — blended, barrel-aged, and produced using wild yeast strains rather than commercial cultures. The taproom is simple: concrete floor, a few tables, taps with their own barrel-aged releases. This is not a food destination, but the beer quality places Casey among Colorado's most respected producers of farmhouse-style ales.

The largest outdoor mineral hot springs pool in the world — two enormous pools fed by the Yampah spring that has been drawing visitors since the 1880s. The main pool is 405 feet long; the smaller therapy pool runs hotter and is quieter. It sits on the edge of downtown, walkable from the hotel strip and Restaurant Row.

Sixteen individual soaking pools carved into a riverside bench on the Colorado River, each running a different temperature. The setting is dramatically different from the big pool down the road — less lap-swim, more actual soaking, with the river current visible just below. Expanding in 2025-26 with additional plunge pools.

America's only mountaintop amusement park, reached by gondola from downtown, combines guided cave tours through ancient caverns with a canyon swing, alpine coaster, and roller coasters — all perched at 7,100 feet above Glenwood Canyon. The cave system includes the Fairy Caves, open since 1897, with stalactites and a natural tunnel passage.

An 1893 resort hotel modeled after a 16th-century Italian villa, where Teddy Roosevelt headquartered his 1905 bear-hunting expedition and the Navy ran a WWII hospital. The interior has been restored to its grand-dame plasterwork and tile; the courtyard fountain and veranda are accessible to non-guests. The bar, restaurant, and coffee house are solid enough to warrant a visit.

Three underground chambers carved by geothermal steam from the Yampah spring — one of the only natural vapor caves in North America open to the public. Temperatures stay around 110 degrees Fahrenheit inside, producing a genuinely prehistoric feeling. Doc Holliday came here for the mineral waters. The spa above offers massage and mineral pools for those who want more structure around the soak.

A furnished 1905 Victorian house on Colorado Avenue that tells Glenwood Springs' silver-boom history through exhibits on Doc Holliday, Theodore Roosevelt, Kid Curry, and the Ute people who originally named the spring. Small, curated, and genuinely local — far better than most small-town history museums because the stories here are actually good.

A short 1.5-mile round-trip hike up a hillside to the Linwood Cemetery, where a memorial marker stands near the likely grave of Doc Holliday, who died of tuberculosis here in 1887 at age 36. The hike itself provides a ridge view down over the Colorado River canyon and the town; the actual grave location is unmarked and disputed, which somehow makes the visit more interesting.