Spring break Hot Sulphur Style

When Tyler and I managed to get a few of the same days off, we packed up the dog and drove eight hours down to Hot Sulphur Springs Colorado. It was supposed to be spring break, but the joke was on us because it snowed two feet after we arrived...

Fortunately, the hot sulphur springs at the resort ranged from 100-115 degrees.

The first night we ventured up to Parshall, five miles into Bayer Canyon. It's a small town that has a post office and a bar and grill--the only place open at 9:30pm.

However, upon venturing to Fraser, we discovered Crooked Creek Saloon (which served until midnight). It was friendly local place with a great wine selection and delicious spring rolls..yes, we ate supper twice.

The next day we tried to fish in the Colorado River--with no luck--and soaked in the pools all day. We packed up our stuff to move from our far away hotel room (the outdoor walk from the room to the pools was a b*) to the poolside apartment.

This little apartment was great. It didn't have a shower (just a tub) but it had sky lights, windows, a full kitchen...we spent the rest of the day eating ham and cheese melts, drinking in the room and sitting in the springs.

One of the perks of renting the apartment: you can swim in the pools after hours! Like your own 21 private hot sulphur pools!

The only weird thing is that the apartment is beside the pools, which are gated off. This means the staff locks the doors every night at 10, and you are stuck inside--unless you are willing to hop the fence both directions. We discovered this when we neede to go to our pick up for something late at night.

Photos above--

left: night swimming in the Ute pool, which has a waterfall

2nd: night swimming in the indoor Solarium pool

3rd: the apartment is located above the locker rooms

right: sulphur and other minerals in the air left a lot of the stone discolored and gooey

After two snow days in the apartment, we headed back North--towards Ft. Collins.

We drove through winding mountain passes and stopped at Tommy Knocker Brewery for lunch in Idaho Springs before preceeding to Ft. Collins.

Once we arrived in Ft. Collins, we needed the brakes replaced. So we dropped the pick up off and headed down town to the Global Village Museum of Art. It was only $5 and there was a great exhibit of Chinese silk sculptures, carved bones, and intricate jade boats. There was another room with tribal exhibits from Africa, the Polynesians, and South America.

Now that we were cultured, we headed down to our favorites of the local breweries; first New Belgium, then O'Dell. Both had live music, and O'Dell had an outdoor fire pit. New Belgium had a great sour apple beer on tap. We stocked up on merch and headed to the hotel for the night.

Our brakes were good to go in the morning, and we rushed back to Spearfish to make it to work later that afternoon.