Soak Next to Macaws at Buena Vista's Charlotte Hot Springs

Iguanas. Macaw parrots. Tropical plants. About five miles west of Buena Vista, at 19256 County Road 343 in Chaffee County.

That is the part people miss when they talk about Colorado hot springs. Everybody knows Glenwood. Everybody knows Mount Princeton down the road. But there is a 60-acre spread out in the San Isabel National Forest area where you soak in geothermal water and then walk into a heated greenhouse full of fish and reptiles and birds that have no business being in the Rockies. And the same water doing the soaking is doing the heating.

This is Charlotte Hot Springs & Botanical Gardens, and it is the only boutique-scale hot springs in the state pulling this off. So buckle up.

Three pools, no rotten-egg smell

Let me set the scene. Three outdoor soaking pools, each one held at a different temperature, each one filled with geothermal water sourced right there on the property. They range from about 12-by-12 up to 16-by-16 feet. Small. Boutique. That is the point.

Here is the detail that actually matters if you have soaked at other mineral springs around Colorado. This water is non-sulfurous. No strong rotten-egg odor. If you have ever climbed out of a mineral pool smelling like a struck match, you know exactly why that is a big deal. And the pathways up to the pools are ADA accessible, which a lot of these mountain springs cannot say.

The public pools had their grand opening back in December 2023, at what the family called construction pricing. A 2026 update confirms all three pools are now open.

The jungle part

But look at this right here. Right next to the pools sits an indoor botanical garden inside a polycarbonate-covered greenhouse. Heated by the same geothermal water that feeds the soaking pools. Inside you get tropical plants, fish, iguanas, and resident macaw parrots.

I mean, sit with that. You are in the Collegiate Peaks. Snow on the fourteeners. And there are parrots.

The garden comes included with your hot springs admission, and it is also open to the public on its own for donations. So even if you are not soaking, you can walk in and see the birds.

The family behind it, and the names on the cabins

Here is the part I actually love, because this is a family story going back generations.

The place is owned and run by the Merrifield family. It is named for Charlotte Merrifield, grandmother of founder Glen Merrifield, an early resident out in that area. So the name is not marketing. It is a grandmother.

The Merrifield roots in Colorado go back to 1875, when William Merrifield came over from England and worked as a miner. Grandfather Roy Merrifield later worked alongside the Holloway family, who were early Buena Vista homesteaders. Keep those two names in your head, because they show up again in a second.

The family started using the geothermal water around 1969 and 1970. Then in 1985 they expanded and built three large greenhouses. And that same water still supplies the greenhouses that stock Merrifield's Garden Hut, the family's shop on Main Street in downtown Buena Vista. So the water works overtime. Soaks the guests, heats the jungle, grows the plants they sell in town.

Side note on how far this thing has come. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, accessing the springs cost 25 cents. Twenty-five cents.

What it costs now

So here is the here-is-the-thing. Per 2024 pricing, day passes ran $30 for adults 17 and up, Monday through Thursday. Youth, seniors, and military got in for