Hot Springs or Hot Springs Swimming Pools near Colorado Springs (Canon City: appointed, school)

[dgcy]

What are the closest hot springs to Colorado Springs? Are there any hot springs in Manitou Springs that I can visit with my son? Are there any hot springs nearby that have swimming pools with hot spring water?

We are moving to Colorado Springs in October. Thank you for your help!

[otowi]

Mt. Princeton Hot Springs in Nathrop comes to mind, but I don't know if they're the closest. They do have a swimming pool. To my knowledge, the springs in Manitou are not hot springs.

[beezle1]

I think there are some hot springs down toward Florence and Canon city. I have never been though. Did a search and found these ones.

Home | Desert Reef Hot Spring
Dakota Hot Springs

[SheridanL]

The Dakota and Reef springs are clothing optional (if that matters to the OP). Since the OP stated visiting with her son ( it would depend on how old your son is )
There is a pool in Salida ...a few hours from Colorado Springs.

[Maynerd]

The pools at Mt Princeton are very nice. One is a soaking pool, generally up around 104 degrees. The other is a bit cooler, probably in the low 90s. They also have a steam room, and you can access Chalk Creek, which is an interesting mix of hot spring water and cold runoff.

It's about 100 miles West of Colorado Springs.

[Fullback32]

The only one I've been to is the Mt Princeton Hot Springs. Enjoyed it a lot.

[SYS]

The closest "real" hot springs is Mt. Princeton Hot Springs which is about 2 hours from CS. It's not well maintained so you may be disappointed the first time. It's worth visiting it to see for yourself, though. They do have a pool good enough for you and your child to enjoy and the stream with "hot spring" coming off the rocky edges of the running water. They also do provide a lodging at a pretty decent price. Just don't expect this place to be fancy.

The most popular hot springs "near" CS that you and your child can both enjoy (some don't allow kids so I'm omitting them) are: 1) Glenwood Hot Springs, which is the largest "man-made" outdoor hot springs in the world located about 4-5 hours from CS. I love the water there, especially in the evening. It's a great place for family. The only thing I don't like about the place is that it's located right in the middle of the busiest intersections of streets and traffic. Right next to this hot springs is something called "Vapor Cave," which is a natural hot steam bath area. I don't think kids are allowed in there, though. 2) Pagosa Hot Springs, which is my favorite, is located some 5 hours of drive from CS towards and near Durango. It's an ideal hot springs with 12 pools with varying degrees of heat (the hottest is called "Lobster Pool" that's 106f, I believe). This hot springs is adjacent to a cool stream (or small river) that you can wade in to cool yourself after soaking yourself in one of those 12 hot pools and vice versa. It's a fantastic place for a family. If you stay in their lodging -- if you can, that is -- the entree fee is waved off. Out of 4 trips to the place in the past decade, I was only successful in reserving a room at their lodge on the very first try. This past summer, though, I found a perfect campground near the hot springs to take my family to. It has a stream, a pond for fishing (and we caught a few!) and pretty safe for tent camping. Since Pagosa is not a short distance from CS, we make a point of adding other attractions into the itinerary. On the way, you can easily stop by the Great Sand Dunes National Park, then off to Durango after Pagosa and swing by the Mesa Verde National Park, then onto 3) Ouray Hot Springs in Ouray, which is also a great family pool. We camp at one of the campgrounds there. On the way home, we stop by the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City which boasts the tallest suspension bridge in the world. It's also a very popular place for rafting. This "looping" itinery is my favorite summer vacation thusfar...

[Maynerd]

Originally Posted by SYS

The closest "real" hot springs is Mt. Princeton Hot Springs which is about 2 hours from CS. It's not well maintained so you may be disappointed the first time.

Have you been there recently? They've done a lot of maintenance the last few years. New decks. New steam room. Refurbished pools. It's much nicer than it was five or six years ago.

[SYS]

Originally Posted by Maynerd

Have you been there recently? They've done a lot of maintenance the last few years. New decks. New steam room. Refurbished pools. It's much nicer than it was five or six years ago.

Well, that's good to know. I've been there twice, each time getting worse so I've stopped visiting there around 5 years ago. I haven't heard anything about their effort to improve all these years, so I'm pleasantly surprised. Well, I'm now actually thinking about visiting the place this week for my boys' last "vacation" before the school starts!! Thanks for the info.

[SYS]

Just talked to my wife, and we're off to Mt. Princeton Hot Springs come this Friday...