Where the FuhKaui?: Glenwood Canyon Adventure Park

Every time we go into Glenwood Canyon we pass by the big hot springs pool. We also see a tram (or gondola) that leads way, way up into the mountains, and other than the small tram station there's just a small sign saying Glenwood Canyon Adventure Park. I look up the park online and decided as soon as summer hours start, we are there! We were going to do both the hot springs resort and the park, but opted for just the park.

You have the option of the tram or an old schoolbus to get up to the park, natch we went for the adventure.

First thing we did was ride the coaster

Only it wasn't your ordinary roller coaster, it was gravity fed, with you controlling the speed. Everyone else went full bore, while I had to use my brakes some going around really tight curves. Even though in my mind I knew it wouldn't run off track, I couldn't convince my body to not be afraid. Plus since I had Jewel with me I figured she'd be scared to death, guess it was just me.

We then had about thirty minutes for our tour of the caverns so we tried out the Swing Shot.

You'll notice there's no ground on the other side of our swing. After buckling in we're pulled back, and up, before being shot out to swing over the canyon. At first Joey and I thought we would lose our lunch, but eventually our stomachs settled back down, enough for me to do it again and talk Jake into trying it. Jewel wanted to but she was too little.

We met up with our extremely knowledgeable tour guide, Kathy, for the longest tour ever.

The highlight of the tour was King's Row

But this has to be my favorite

She had some food item name for this formation, as almost the whole cave has, but we know what it really looks like.

After seeing cauliflower, mushroom, popcorn and bacon in the formations Jonas had a question for her when she asked if anyone had one: "Umm yeah, can you stop talking about food you're making my mouth water."

While we were in the caves (we toured two different areas) there was a thunderstorm. Because of the storm they had to shut everything down so almost the entire park cleared out by taking the bus back down. We decided to peruse the gift shop where the kids all got more sleeping animals, as if two black bags full aren't enough in 200sf. of space, but I digress. I got a new night light, I can never have enough of those.

It felt like there were only about 10 of us left in the park at this point, and the sky has cleared up and it couldn't be a better day to have an adventure Park all to ourselves. I even learned the names of the employees.

While waiting for Wade to get back to the rock climbing wall, the kids, and I'm including the 200 lb. one in that, rode the coaster about four more times. We got lucky, the kid that measured Jonas said he was too small to go alone which meant he had to go with a bigger rider, and go for free. Jewel was already free so we had a lot of extra ride tickets for the kids, it worked out great, especially considering the other ride with restrictions measured him tall enough. For the first time I kept my mouth shut and went with it, normally I'd try to prove that he was indeed 48" tall, but when I can save a few bucks...well, you know how I feel about that.

I think I was more excited about rock climbing than anyone else. Joey tried telling me that it's harder than I think, as if I might not be able to do it. It was so easy! I loved it! I want to go do it for real now. My arms were sore the next day because I was too afraid to let go. I started climbing back down until I finally had the guts to just push off, and I didn't stop until my butt hit the ground.