Located in the Arkansas River Valley of central Colorado at the base of the Collegiate Peaks.
Just below Mount Princeton, Chalk Creek runs clear and cold through the rocks — until it doesn’t. Warm water seeps into the current, and along the banks people quietly stack river stones into small soaking pools. Each one slightly different. Each one temporary. You move a rock and the temperature changes. Another rock and the current softens.
It feels less like visiting a hot spring and more like discovering one.
Further up the path, the experience shifts. The infinity pool looks directly into the Collegiate Peaks, snow holding onto the ridgelines long after sunrise. The same mineral water, interpreted two ways — one shaped by hand in the creek, the other held still by design.
Both keep you longer than you planned.
Buena Vista doesn’t organize your day for you. The Arkansas River becomes the center instead — families throwing stones, anglers casting lines upriver, people wandering without deciding where they’re headed yet. Winter light moves across the valley and everyone adjusts to it.
You walk because there’s nowhere specific to be.
Afternoon naturally drifts toward the riverfront buildings, and eventually everything points to one place.
Not just somewhere to stay — more like the living room of town. Ski boots and leather coats mix in the lobby, travelers linger longer than guests usually do, and the fireplace stays occupied from late afternoon into night. Outside, the saltwater hot pool steams beside the river path while people come and go between walks and drinks.
It’s an après-outdoor spot without needing a ski resort — a mountain version of après surf, where the activity doesn’t matter as much as the return afterward.
Rooms stay quiet, but the building stays alive.
Downstairs, Wesley & Rose carries the same energy into the evening. Candlelight, cocktails, and conversations that stretch out past dinner. You don’t feel rushed because no one else is either. Windows hold the last blue of the mountains while the bar slowly fills.
You realize most of the town eventually ends up here.
Soak in Chalk Creek.
Walk the Arkansas until the sun shifts.
End where everyone gathers.
Some places are destinations.
Others are rhythms you fall into for a day.
This one just keeps giving you reasons not to leave yet.
— Deco Vaquero
