Valley View Hot Springs

“My wife and I go there [Valley View Hot Springs, Colorado] a number of times a year. The place is great. We are [free]hikers and do not find the trip to the upper pools difficult at all. I think it depends on the perspective if you are used to hiking mountain country or not used to it. The hike to the mine takes people from lower elevations 1 1/'2 to 2 hours up and less coming back. It is an old road for the first mile or more, and then finishes with a good hiking trail that climbs the hill to the mine. Seeing a quarter million bats come out is really something. . .

The kids will like the big swimming pool . . . The big soaking pool uphill from the big swimming pool usually has colored marbles and rocks for the kids to get (it is about 3 feet deep all over). . . There is a hot pool that is about 1 1/2 feet deep by the swimming pool and is the only "hot" pool there. They heat it with their self generated electricity. The other pools are usually 93-96 degrees. . .

The only drawback to Valley View that we find, is that there are a lot of "skinny dippers" as opposed to nudists. We call them skinny dippers because they only get nude in the pools. . . There are plenty of nudists too. We even sent the OLT folks an email several years ago (after our first visit) to ask it was really alright to go naked anywhere anytime. They said absolutely yes. Even the office is fine. . . We even went to the office the next trip and deliberately went to the office to become contributors and ask some questions. They never batted an eye. . .

My wife and I have been the only naked people in Oak House several times on winter trips . . . and nobody has ever acted funny or put out. We have also been in Oak House several times when nobody had clothes on. . .

Hiking nude to the mine or upper pools is all on the OLT property so is just fine. We have hiked with nude people to the mine in the afternoons . . . and we have hiked with clothed people while we were nude. Nobody cares, so do what you like. We like no clothes. They had a tour group at the mine once when we hiked up on a warm evening. They were not from VV but had been told that nude people were probable. We hung out nude with about 20 people with clothes on for over an hour. They had been told by their guide that no pictures of any people were allowed without the person's permission. Nobody said anything bad and they were all friendly, not put out.

We also hike on up the mountains sometimes and do it nude if the weather allows. Once you leave the OLT property you are on federal lands. In CO hiking nude on Federal lands is tolerated unless someone issues a complaint and then they have to follow up on it and find you to issue a small ticket.

On one warm hike we ran into a group of CO Mt College students that were there to work on the trail we were using (we usually stay off trails when nude hiking). We were worried for a minute and then one of them said rather loudly "looks like escapees from the hot springs." Everybody cracked up and we visited with them for awhile and hiked on up the trail with them a ways to where they were going to work next.

We have hiked nude with other folks that are like minded, and even hiked nude a whole day once with several others that never did get nude. It is nice to suit yourself about clothes and others can do the same. Should be that way all over.” – Jerry K.