Photo by Fæ, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
🇺🇸 USA · Colorado
♨ Temperature
40.5°C
⛰ Altitude
1768 m
⚗ pH
6.8
💧 TDS
1800 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
95 L/s
📅 Established
1888
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Glenwood Hot Springs in Colorado is one of the most storied thermal destinations in North America. The Yampah spring — 'big medicine' in Ute — has been revered for centuries. The hot springs pool, opened in 1888, stretches over 122 metres and holds 1.5 million gallons of geothermally heated water. It became a destination of choice for figures like Theodore Roosevelt and Doc Holliday, who spent his final months in Glenwood Springs. Today it remains the world's largest outdoor hot springs pool, operated year-round. The Amtrak California Zephyr stops directly at Glenwood Springs station, making it one of the few thermal destinations in North America that is genuinely train-accessible without a car.
| Sodium | 420 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 890 mg/L |
| Sulphate | 340 mg/L |
| Calcium | 180 mg/L |
| Magnesium | 52 mg/L |
The Yampah spring site has been a gathering place for Ute peoples for centuries before European settlement. The hot springs pool opened in 1888 under developer Walter Devereux and became a signature stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Doc Holliday is buried in Glenwood Springs, having come to the springs seeking relief from tuberculosis.
Glenwood Springs occupies a canyon carved by the Colorado River between rugged sandstone cliffs. The Ute name 'Yampah' — meaning 'big medicine' — reflects the spring's cultural significance long before its commercial development. The thermal waters have been central to the town's identity for over 130 years.
The Yampah spring flows at approximately 95 litres per second without pumping, entirely gravity-fed from geothermal pressure in the surrounding Rocky Mountain aquifer system. The pool is heated solely by the spring's natural temperature, with no external energy input for heating.
Websitewww.hotspringspool.com
Address401 N River St, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601, USA