There’s really nothing better than feeling weightless in hot springs while gazing up at snow-capped mountains — except for infusing your body and mind with well-being as you soak and let the cares of the world fade into the vast, blue sky. Durango Hot Springs Resort & Spa offers exceptional healing properties, both natural and enhanced.

Mother Nature has graced Durango Hot Springs’ water with 32 natural minerals — compared to an average of eight to 16 minerals found in most hot springs throughout the world — with high total dissolved solids (TDS), shares Ken Stone, director of sales and marketing. For mineral water to offer health benefits, it must contain TDS measuring more than 4,500; Durango Hot Springs’ TDS weighs in at
over 14,000. Higher-concentration minerals include lithium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, calcium, chloride, fluoride, sulfate, silicon, iron and manganese. Meanwhile, there’s not enough sulfur to produce any unpleasant odor.

Photos courtesy of Durango Hot Springs.

“There is a wealth of mineral content in the water that has been demonstrated to promote health,” says James Graven of Durango-based Treehouse Communications. “The body absorbs these minerals while soaking, which circulate and provide relaxation, pain relief, improved skin health and other benefits.”

Durango Hot Springs employs cutting-edge technology to enhance nature’s healing effects. It’s the only hot spring to permeate its pools with 1 trillion nanobubbles of medical grade oxygen for each liter of water through a system called AquaGen.

“We’re incredibly fortunate to have this incredible natural water resource, and then we supercharge it,” Stone says about the hot springs. “The resort keeps its water pristine with a flow-through water system that exchanges fresh water every two hours in each of the 32 soaking pools, which is refreshing, compared to the industry standard of 24-hour water exchange. The only recirculating system is in the swimming pool and uses oxygen and ozone to sanitize water. Only a trace of chlorine is added, which is required by the government for the swimming pool. No chlorine is added to the other 32 mineral soaks.

The resort has benefited from over $14 million in capital improvements since its new ownership in 2019. “We’ve actually doubled the number of soaking pools in the last year, and it continues to evolve,” Stone says, adding that reservations are required to ensure “uncrowded or even empty soaking pools.”

Two recently-added 45-degree cold plunge pools, aptly named Purgatory and Limbo, are extremely popular to improve circulation, decrease inflammation and promote muscle recovery. Fitting six to eight people comfortably, they’re some of the biggest cold plunge pools in Colorado, Graven reveals.

For ultra-privacy and temperature control, five cedar, Japanese-style Ofuro tubs create another way to unwind. Each tub, rented by the hour, is freshly filled with thermal mineral water heated to a soaker’s, or couple’s, desired temperature.

“The hot springs is peaceful. It’s joyful,” Graven believes. “It just has this warm, inviting feeling where you can relax in private or talk and connect with others.”

This article is a sponsored partnership