Best Hot Springs in Colorado

Some links on our site may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

The best hot springs in Colorado split into two camps. There are big developed pools you can take the whole family to, and small rock-lined soaks where the point is the silence. Glenwood and Ouray are the family pools. Strawberry Park, Valley View and the free river pools at Pagosa Springs are the quiet ones. Day passes run from $18 at Joyful Journey to $74 at The Springs Resort. Most of the good ones sit a half day or more from Denver.

I’ve soaked in most of these over years of Colorado trips. Usually it’s at the end of a river day or a pass drive. Mount Princeton and Cottonwood are where I go after a run on the Arkansas River. Ouray is the reward for surviving the Million Dollar Highway. Cold air, hot water and sore shoulders is the whole formula, and it never gets old.

Hot Springs in Colorado

Ten springs cover the state well. Two are in Glenwood Springs, two near Buena Vista and two in the San Luis Valley. The rest are scattered across the western half. Prices below are adult day passes from each operator’s own page, checked in September 2026.

Hot springs	Town	Adult day pass	Season	Soak style
Glenwood Hot Springs	Glenwood Springs	$42–$60	Year-round, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.	Huge family pool
Iron Mountain	Glenwood Springs	$43–$75 (21+ area $75–$150)	Year-round, 9 a.m.–10 p.m.	Many small riverside pools
Strawberry Park	Steamboat Springs	$30, cash only	Year-round; 4WD Nov 1–May 1	Rustic creek pools
Mount Princeton	Nathrop	Posted at the resort	Year-round, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.	Resort pools plus creek
Cottonwood	Buena Vista	$45	Year-round, 8 a.m.–midnight	Low-key soaking tubs
Ouray Hot Springs	Ouray	$30	Year-round, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.	Big town pool
The Springs Resort	Pagosa Springs	$74	Year-round, 9 a.m.–10 p.m.	Terraced riverside pools
Valley View	Moffat	$20	Year-round, reserve ahead	Natural ponds, clothing optional
Joyful Journey	Moffat	$18	Year-round	Three quiet pools
Dunton	Near Rico	Overnight only, all-inclusive	Year-round	Private ghost-town resort

If you only get one, pick by who’s coming. Kids under ten do best at Glenwood or Ouray. Couples should book Strawberry Park after dark or the adult side of Iron Mountain. Anyone who wants the water without a turnstile should drive to the San Luis Valley.

Glenwood Hot Springs

Glenwood Hot Springs is the big one: a mineral pool two city blocks long beside the Colorado River. It’s also the easiest hot spring in the state to reach off I-70. Adult and teen day passes run $42 to $60 depending on peak or off-peak dates, per the resort’s rates page. Children are $30 to $38, and ages 2 and under are free. The pool is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

The Grand Pool is warm rather than hot, which is why you can float in it for an hour. The small therapy pool next to it runs 104 degrees and is where the adults end up. Summer weekends get crowded and loud. Go early on a weekday or after dinner, when the steam comes off the water and the lodge lights come on.

We covered the town, lodging and the rest of the costs in our Glenwood Springs guide. The short version: a soak, a night and the Adventure Park make a solid two-day stop between Denver and Utah.

Iron Mountain Glenwood Springs

Iron Mountain is across the river on the west side of town. It’s the opposite experience: 35 small pools at different temperatures instead of one giant one. Select Access, the family-friendly ticket, runs $43 to $75. Premier Access for ages 21 and over runs $75 to $150 and adds the WorldSprings pools and the sauna area. Booking online saves $5 over the walk-in rate, and the pools are open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The pools run 89 to 108 degrees, with cold plunges at 45 to 55. Children under 5 can’t use the geothermal pools at all and stay in the Family Zone. Pick Iron Mountain over Glenwood when you’d rather hop between hot tubs and watch the river than swim laps.

Strawberry Park Hot Springs

Strawberry Park, seven miles up a dirt road from Steamboat Springs, is the most atmospheric soak in Colorado. Stone-walled pools step down a creek canyon under aspens. The cold creek runs right through them, so you pick your temperature by moving ten feet. Admission is $30 per adult and $20 for ages 17 and under, cash only, with no ATM on site.

Reservations are required, sold in two-hour slots. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday, with last entry two hours before close. After dark the pools go clothing-optional and minors aren’t allowed in, so a family visit means daylight.

The road is the catch. From November 1 to May 1, Routt County law requires a 4WD vehicle with snow tires or chains to reach the springs, per the springs’ own site. They mean it. The last stretch is steep, narrow and ices over. In winter a shuttle from town is the better plan. There’s no cell service once you’re in the canyon, which is half the appeal.

Mount Princeton Hot Springs

Mount Princeton Hot Springs sits on Chalk Creek in Nathrop, between Buena Vista and Salida. The 14,000-foot peak it’s named for fills the view. The resort runs a historic bathhouse, upper pools and an infinity pool, all open to day visitors from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. year-round. Day passes are sold at the door with no reservation. There are child rates for ages 4 to 15, senior rates at 62 and up, and free entry for ages 3 and under. Everyone signs a waiver on the way in.

The reason to come is the creek. Hot water seeps up through the gravel bed of Chalk Creek. You build your own pool by shifting rocks to let in more or less of the cold stream. It’s odorless water, which is rare for a Colorado spring. This is my stop after a day of whitewater. The infinity pool is the pretty one; the creek is the one you’ll talk about.

Cottonwood Buena Vista

Cottonwood Hot Springs is the scruffier, cheaper cousin five miles west of Buena Vista on the Cottonwood Pass road. Day soaking passes are $45 for adults and $35 for ages 12 and under, and walk-ins are always accepted. The pools stay open 8 a.m. to midnight every day. Towels are extra and swimsuits are required.

Expect a handful of gravel-bottomed soaking tubs at different temperatures, a river plunge and a dry sauna. A no-frills lodge is attached. Nobody comes here for polish. It’s the place to sit in the dark with the Collegiate Peaks overhead and not talk to anybody.

Ouray Hot Springs

Ouray Hot Springs Pool is a million-gallon, sulfur-free municipal pool at the north end of town. It was rebuilt a few years ago, and the cliffs that earn Ouray its Switzerland-of-America line ring the whole thing. Adults pay $30 and ages 3 to 17 pay $18. Seniors 65 to 74 pay $24, anyone 75 or older pays $10, and children under 3 are free. Public hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; the first hour of the day is members only.

The pool is split into sections. The city’s pool page lists the overlook pool at 102 to 106 degrees, the hot pool at 95 to 103 and a lap pool at 75 to 83. A shallow pool and an activity pool with slides open from Memorial Day into mid-August. Unlimited slides cost $5 a day. No sulfur smell means no stink on your suit afterward, which matters when you’re back in the car.

This is the best family pool in the San Juans and the natural end to a day on US 550. Soak first, then walk two blocks for dinner.

Pagosa Springs Hot Springs

Pagosa Springs is built on the Mother Spring, which feeds every pool in town. Guinness measured it at more than 1,002 feet deep, according to the town’s hot springs brochure. The Springs Resort is the showpiece. Dozens of terraced pools stack down the bank of the San Juan River, each a different temperature, with an adults-only terrace at the top.

General admission is $74 for adults and $42 for ages 3 to 12, with $3 off for seniors. It covers 20 original pools plus five adult-only terrace pools. A Wellness Day Pass at $119 Monday to Thursday or $159 Friday to Sunday opens the newer pools. The bathhouse is open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the pools clear at 9:30. Overnight guests soak around the clock, which is the real argument for staying.

The free river pools are the other Pagosa. Hot water seeps out of the riverbank below the resort. People have stacked rocks into a string of primitive soaking pools right at the water’s edge. They cost nothing and never close. They’re also muddy, hit or miss on temperature, and can be underwater in June runoff. Go at dawn in the fall for the best version.

Valley View Hot Springs

Valley View, run by the nonprofit Orient Land Trust above the San Luis Valley, is the least developed spring on this list. Serious soakers rank it first. Natural ponds sit along short, rough trails on a hillside between 8,600 and 9,000 feet. The whole valley and the Sangre de Cristo range spread out below. The entire property is clothing optional.

A day pass is $20, with arrival between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. and the right to stay until 8 p.m., as the land trust lists it. Supervised children 15 and under get in free. An overnight pass is $40 per person per night on top of camping or cabin fees. Admission is capped, so reservations matter. Non-members can book 24 hours ahead; supporting members book further out, which is how regulars lock in summer weekends.

Plan on it being remote. The nearest gas, groceries or restaurant is about 35 minutes away. The road in is gravel, and the ponds are unlit at night. That’s also why the stars here are the best of any spring in the state.

Joyful Journey Moffat

Joyful Journey is the budget soak of the San Luis Valley. It sits a few miles south of Valley View on the flats near Moffat. Adults pay $18, children 4 to 14 and seniors 65 and over pay $15, and the pools are open 9:30 a.m. to 9:50 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Three main pools sit at 98, 104 and 108 degrees, plus two hot tubs at 104. It’s flat, quiet and open to the sky, with the Sangre de Cristos as the backdrop. On a weeknight there’s almost nobody in the water. Suits, towels and robes rent for a few dollars if you forgot yours.

Dunton Ghost Town

Dunton is the splurge. It’s a restored 1880s mining ghost town about 25 miles southwest of Telluride, run as a private all-inclusive resort. There are 14 cabins, a bathhouse over the hot source and a couple of cabins with their own private springs. There’s no day pass. Rates are per night for two guests and include all meals and drinks apart from the reserve wine list. You check availability by date rather than reading a price off a page.

It’s the only spring here where the soak is the smallest part of the bill. Save it for an anniversary, and drive the back way in through Rico when the road is dry.

Best Time to Visit Colorado Hot Springs

Winter is the best time to soak, full stop. Steam off the water, snow on the deck and 20-degree air make every one of these springs better than they are in July. The trade is access. Strawberry Park’s 4WD rule runs November to May, Valley View’s gravel road ices, and the passes between the western springs close for storms.

Summer is crowd season at Glenwood and Ouray, and June runoff floods the free river pools at Pagosa. September and early October are the sweet spot: aspens turning above Strawberry Park, cool nights, and the summer crowds gone. Whatever the month, go on a weekday and go late. Every pool on this list empties out after dinner.

Colorado Hot Springs Guide

Are There Free Hot Springs in Colorado?

Yes. The rock-lined river pools on the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs cost nothing and never close. There are a handful of other primitive soaks on public land around the state. The free ones are muddy, unregulated and temperature-dependent on the river, so treat them as a bonus rather than the plan.

Are Hot Springs Open in Winter?

Yes. Every developed spring on this list is open year-round, and winter is the best season to soak. The limits are the roads. Strawberry Park requires 4WD with snow tires or chains from November 1 to May 1, and the gravel roads into Valley View and Joyful Journey can ice over after a storm.

Can Kids Go to Hot Springs in Colorado?

Yes, at most of them. Glenwood, Ouray, Mount Princeton, Cottonwood, Joyful Journey and Valley View all admit children, and Glenwood and Ouray are built for them. Iron Mountain keeps children under 5 out of the geothermal pools. Strawberry Park bars minors after dark when the pools go clothing optional.

Is Pagosa Springs Worth Visiting?

Yes, if you like your soak with a view of the river and don’t mind paying for it. The Springs Resort is the most polished hot springs setting in Colorado. The free river pools below it give you the raw version for nothing. Pagosa is also a natural overnight between Durango and the Great Sand Dunes.

Which Hot Springs in Colorado Are Clothing Optional?

Valley View is clothing optional across the whole property at all hours. Strawberry Park goes clothing optional after dark, when minors are no longer admitted. Every other spring on this list requires a swimsuit. Cottonwood states it outright, and the town pools in Glenwood and Ouray are family pools with the rules you’d expect.

Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.

Published October 7, 2026.