Glenwood Springs Downtown Webcam – Grand Avenue Bridge

The Glenwood Springs Downtown Webcam looks north along Grand Avenue, the stretch of Colorado State Highway 82 that runs through the center of Glenwood Springs, toward the Grand Avenue Bridge. Two-story storefronts with awnings and sidewalk tables line the left side of the street. A clock tower with a red tile roof stands in the right foreground, and a large painted mural covers a wall farther up on the right. The avenue runs straight away from the lens to the bridge approach, where it lifts above the rooftops and bends out of sight. Above the town, a steep mountainside dotted with low trees and scrub fills the top of the frame, with bare rock ridges in the distance on the left. Cars and trucks stop and start at the traffic lights in the foreground.

About Downtown Glenwood Springs and the Grand Avenue Bridge

Colorado Mountain College runs the Glenwood Springs Downtown Webcam and describes it as a view of Highway 82 facing north through downtown. The college’s central services building stands on this stretch, at 802 Grand Avenue on the corner of 8th Street. Grand Avenue is both the town’s main street and its main through road: south of downtown, Highway 82 continues up the Roaring Fork Valley toward Carbondale and Aspen.

At the far end of the frame, the avenue climbs onto the bridge that carries the highway over the Union Pacific railroad, the Colorado River and Interstate 70. The original bridge, built in 1953, was a nine-span steel girder structure 206 meters (676 feet) long. Its replacement cost $125.6 million, shared by the Colorado Bridge Enterprise, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the city, Garfield and Eagle counties and local utilities, and was designed with wider lanes and a curved alignment. Highway traffic was detoured for 85 days from mid-August 2017 while the final section went in, and the new bridge opened to traffic that November. A new pedestrian bridge came with the project, with viewing platforms over the Colorado River and its rafters, toward the mouth of Glenwood Canyon, and over the tracks where Amtrak’s California Zephyr arrives each day.

Glenwood Springs sits at 1,756 meters (5,761 feet), where the Roaring Fork River flows into the Colorado. The settlement was first called Defiance. Sarah Cooper, wife of Isaac Cooper, persuaded the founders to rename it after her hometown of Glenwood, Iowa, and the town was incorporated on September 4, 1885. It counted 9,963 residents at the 2020 census.

Weather and Climate in Glenwood Springs

January averages highs near 2 C (36 F) and lows around minus 10 C (13 F), and about 151 centimeters (59 inches) of snow falls in a typical year. In winter the camera can show snow on the mountainside and on the flat roofs to the right of the street. Spring warms quickly, with April highs of about 15 C (59 F), though nights still sit close to freezing at 0 C (32 F).

Summer in the valley is hot and fairly dry. July highs average 31 C (87 F), nights cool to about 12 C (53 F), and the whole year brings only around 436 millimeters (17 inches) of precipitation. October settles at about 18 C (64 F) by day and 1 C (33 F) at night, and by mid-October the trees along the street and on the lower slopes have turned yellow. These figures are the Western Regional Climate Center’s 1981 to 2010 averages for the town.

Things to Do Near Downtown Glenwood Springs

The pedestrian bridge is the walking route from downtown to the north side of the river, where the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool and the Hotel Colorado stand. The hotel, about 500 meters (a third of a mile) north of the college’s Grand Avenue building, opened on June 10, 1893. Silver magnate and banker Walter Devereux built it as a replica of the Villa de Medici, and it joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Theodore Roosevelt stayed there in 1905, and local legend says the hotel’s maids stitched him a stuffed bear from scraps of fine fabric, one of the stories told about the first teddy bear.

The California Zephyr calls at Glenwood Springs daily, and the station is the second busiest in Colorado after Denver Union Station. Doc Holliday spent the last months of his life here and is buried in the town’s original Pioneer Cemetery, above Bennett Avenue. The show caves of Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park are close by, and Glenwood Canyon begins on the east side of town, where Interstate 70 follows the Colorado River.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

For another camera near Glenwood Springs and more Colorado mountain towns, try these.

• Glenwood Springs Webcam at Sunlight Mountain
• Breckenridge Webcam
• Pagosa Springs Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

What can you see on the Glenwood Springs Downtown Webcam?

The camera looks north up Grand Avenue through downtown. Storefronts line the left side, a red-roofed clock tower and a large mural stand on the right, and the avenue runs ahead to the approach of the Grand Avenue Bridge, with a scrub-covered mountainside rising behind the town.

Where is the Grand Avenue Bridge in Glenwood Springs?

It carries Grand Avenue, Colorado State Highway 82, north from downtown over the railroad, the Colorado River and Interstate 70 to the side of town with the hot springs pool and the Hotel Colorado. Glenwood Springs is in Garfield County in western Colorado, where the Roaring Fork River meets the Colorado River.

Can you check Highway 82 traffic on the Glenwood Springs Downtown Webcam?

Yes, for the downtown stretch. Colorado Mountain College describes the camera as a view of Highway 82 facing north, so it shows traffic in both directions on Grand Avenue between the downtown signals and the bridge. It does not show Interstate 70, which the Colorado Department of Transportation covers with its own cameras on its COtrip traveler information site.

Does the webcam show the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool?

No. The pool is on the north side of the Colorado River, beyond the bridge, and cannot be seen from this angle.

Can this webcam show whether Glenwood Canyon is open?

No. Glenwood Canyon begins on the east side of town, and the camera faces north along Grand Avenue, so neither the canyon nor its stretch of Interstate 70 is in frame. The Colorado Department of Transportation posts canyon closures on COtrip.

When was the Grand Avenue Bridge built?

The current bridge opened to traffic in November 2017, after 85 days of closure and detours. It replaced a nine-span steel bridge from 1953 that was 206 meters (676 feet) long, and the same project added a pedestrian bridge between downtown and the north side of the river.

What is the weather like in Glenwood Springs?

Winters are cold and summers hot and fairly dry. January averages highs of 2 C (36 F) and lows of minus 10 C (13 F), July reaches about 31 C (87 F) by day and 12 C (53 F) at night, and around 151 centimeters (59 inches) of snow falls in an average year.

Source: Colorado Mountain College