Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

Glenwood Caverns was discovered way back in the 1800’s. This cave system has been opened to the public since 1895. The cool thing is, it’s not just the two caverns that you can visit, but the owners have added major carnival rides that makes Glenwood Caverns unique from any park we’ve seen. Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is a super fun destination for families in Glenwood Springs.

Roller coasters on the mountain were so cool!

Gondola Ride

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park is sort of like Disneyland on a mountainside. The views from the top of the mountain are amazing! Part of the charm of this park is that you are enjoying fun roller coasters in the mountains instead of a city.

Your trip begins with a gondola ride that takes you to the top of the mountain. This ride alone is worth the view of looking out over the two towns of Glenwood Springs and No Name that sit right on the Colorado River. It is possible to purchase gondola tickets only, but we wanted to ride the rides!

These are the gondolas you ride up to the park.

There is a large map and signs all over the park to help you find your way.

Once you reach the top of the mountain, there is a large map board that leads you to the major rides and the caverns. Here is a brief description of some of the rides we enjoyed at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park.

Soaring Eagle Zipline

This is a short, straight zipline that draws you back up over the canyon. Then you zip straight back to the starting point. It’s a relatively short ride, but the height is pretty cool.

Alpine Roller Coaster

This was by far our favorite ride. On the Alpine Roller Coaster you control the speed of your roller coaster sled as it takes massive turns down the canyon. This was like an alpine slide, but the sled is hooked to the track like a roller coaster car. The track is surprisingly long, and takes you back to the top at the end.

The Alpine Coaster was our favorite ride.

It is so fun to drive your coaster yourself.

Roller Coasters (Defiance and Cliffhanger)

There are two great roller coasters, they were roughly equivalent to Wicked and Bombura at Lagoon. The cool thing is they are balanced on the edge of the cliff, so as you ride, you are constantly thinking about the canyon rim just below you. Both roller coasters were amazing!

The new ride Defiance is a huge roller coaster.

This roller coaster goes right over the canyon.

Canyon Flyer

If you’ver riden a large swing ride, with swings that swing out from a center pole, you’ll love this one. It swings out over a thousand foot drop, which is so amazing. This was a favorite ride, even though it was fairly simple, just because of the massive drop.

The swings were one of our favorites, too. Flying over the canyon is amazing.

Giant Canyon Swing

We skipped this as it is not really our cup of tea, but this was like the Tidal Wave at Lagoon, but you’re strapped to the outside of the boat. Then it swings out with a straight drop over the canyon. Yikes!

OTHER RIDES

There are a few other rides that work for young kids. A small roller coaster, laser tag, and 4D shows. You can check the height requirements on their website.

This is the little kiddie roller coaster, but all ages are welcome.

There are trolls to see and take photos with.

The Caverns

There are two caverns that have guided tours: King’s Row & Fairy Caves. The tours meet at times specified on your ticket, and take about 40 minutes. We were only able to tour the King’s Row Cave, but our guide was very informative and there were some neat things to see in the cave. The caves are living, so they are wet and cool and have a lot interesting features.

Food

There are a few different restaurants a Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, and they are reasonably priced for an amusement park. Someone recommended eating at the Lookout Grille and we were so glad that we chose this spot. It has great views of the mountain areas, and the food was delicious.

The views at the Lookout Grille are worth it.

We ordered nachos and they were delicious.

Tips for Families

We really enjoyed our day at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. The rides were a lot of fun and there were plenty of them. Mostly, though, it was the uniqueness of the setting that made this park fun.

Bring Water. There are water refilling stations.
Wear sunscreen since you are often out in the open.
Bring a bag or backpack to keep sunglasses, hats, water bottles, and other items that can’t be taken on the roller coasters.
Plan at least a half day to enjoy everything at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park. We arrived at 2:30 pm and stayed until 8:30 pm (the park closed at 9:00 pm the day we were there).
If you are staying in Glenwood Springs, make sure to consider hiking to Hanging Lake. It is a tough hike, but beautiful destination.