Although our primary reason for staying in this area was to visit with our son, Eric, he had a busy week scheduled between work and a weekend festival he had tickets to. So we had to squeeze a week’s worth of visiting into a few days. One night was spent having dinner together and the next couple of days we did an overnight trip to a couple of places west of Denver.

We picked Eric up in the morning and first stop was Glenwood Hot Springs. We had planned to go to a place called Glenwood Hot Springs pool but on the way Jamie did some research and we all decided it seemed like more of a community pool then a relaxing hot spring. She found another place called Iron Mountain Hot Springs that seemed much nicer. We passed the Glenwood place on the way and all agreed we made the right choice. Iron Mountain was nicer and had numerous “tubs” of varying temperatures. It was very relaxing and we all enjoyed it. From there we headed to Central City, an old western town that Jamie’s dad had taken her as a child. We got hotel reservation at a casino called the Grand Z and spent the night there. After dinner we had worn Eric out so he headed up to bed. Not easy keeping up with the Guggers! Jamie and I headed out to check out the town and found one of the local establishments that Jamie’s dad took her to. Great memories for her.

The next day we went to a town called Idaho Springs. It was a very quaint little town with a bunch of unique shops and places to eat. They also had a hot springs called Indian Hot Springs. This one was more like an indoor pool but was fed by underground hot springs. It wasn’t exactly our idea of a hot spring but they did have an interesting room called the mud room. It had a mud bath from the hot springs water that you coat yourself with the mud, then sit in a lounge chair and let the mud dry and exfoliate your skin. Jamie and I had done something like that in Israel at the Dead Sea so we figured Eric might find it interesting.
After all that we drove to Lookout mountain, where Buffalo Bill was buried in 1917. It’s a mountain that overlooks Denver and the surrounding areas. They had a museum and very large gift shop. Eric found a cowboy had that he loved so he got an early Christmas present.

Finally, we headed to Evergreen to a bar that was recommended to me called the Little Bear Saloon. It’s an old time saloon with some fun décor. Swinging doors to enter, dollar bills and license plates from all over hanging on the walls, bras from all over hanging on the ceilings and much more. They had a great band playing and we had fun hanging out there. Eric looked good sporting his new cowboy hat. We wore Eric out again and drove him home but it was a great two days together.