By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor
I’m obsessed with swimming pools. Not just because I wish I could swim like Dara Torres, but also because I love fantasizing about the early days of swimming pool bliss, the turn-of-the-century era when natatoriums were where people hung out, dressed in their unbelievably ornate (and prudish) swimsuits, loving the freedom of being without all those ridiculous fancy dresses and suits. I love how pools were considered health-giving, and how entire towns sprang up around natural mineral baths that people would flock to in search of health. I especially love pools that capture some of that history. Just back from a weekend in Calistoga (a town whose history can be directly traced to exactly those health seekers), and slammed with a mountain of deadlines, I’ve got pools—and the need for a therapeutic soak—on the brain more than usual. (Calistoga, take me away!) That's why I'm sharing three of my favorite pools of the West with you.
Note that all three of these are long enough for a good lap swim. In my book, there’s nothing worse than a pool too short for real swimming.
1. Indian Springs Resort and Spa in Calistoga. (Combine this with a weekend of wine tasting.) It’s a gorgeous, Olympic-size, mineral-springs-fed pool that you can access for free if you stay overnight or get a spa treatment, or for $25 (or $20 Sunday through Thursday) if you go with a friend who’s getting a spa treatment. The sunny, cozy cottages are surrounded by palm and olive trees and a giant bocce court, are your best bet for lodging (in the $250–$350 ranch per night); there’s also a relatively new lodge, but I myself would opt for the cottages. They’re more private and feel more special.
(Trivia tangent: did you know that Leland Stanford considered building the Stanford campus on this property, where Indian Springs Resort now exists? A Stanford grad myself, I sort of wish he had. Think of all the good wine I could have drunk back in my college days.)
Photo by Viky Nash
2. Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge & Pool in Glenwood Springs, Colorado (pictured above). The pool, which is fed, of course, by the town’s famous mineral springs, has views of the Rockies and is over two blocks long. That’s what they say on their website. I have no idea how that compares to an Olympic-size pool, but suffice it to say it’s long. More family-oriented than Indian Springs, it’s got slides and a kiddie pool. The accommodations here are more ho-hum, motel-style, but the rates are cheap (from about $200). Combine this with a trip to the new Glenwood Springs Whitewater Park, the newest manmade whitewater park in the Mountains, and you've got a fun, stress-draining weekend.
3. Kitsilano Beach Pool in Vancouver, BC. Don’t even get me started on this place. I would move to Vancouver just to swim in this pool. It’s smack next to the beach so you feel like you’re swimming in the ocean but without having to battle boats and waves. Not only do you see the ocean, but also mountains, Kits Beach, and the skyline of the West End. At 137 meters (150 yards), three times longer than an Olympic pool, it’s Canada’s longest pool, so by the time you’ve swum two laps you’ve put in a good day’s work without even really noticing it. And it’s saltwater! Heated saltwater, no less. which means no nasty chemicals. How cool is that?
Happy swimming. And when you come up for air, tell me about your favorite pools.
