After our first visit to Colorado Springs in 2009, we were happy to return — even if it was only for 26 hours.
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Colorado Springs, Colorado, is famous for its peaks.
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But my wife Ruth and I know it for peeks — two too-short visits that have given us merely a taste of the city and surrounding area.
That experience kept Colorado Springs in our minds, so we were glad to return recently, if only for 26 hours.
DAY 1, 10 a.m.
We arrived in Colorado Springs after a one-hour drive southbound on I-25 from downtown Denver.
The area’s natural beauty has been like a magnet to artists for many years. The FAC traces its history to the founding of the Broadmoor Art Academy in 1919, and is now connected with Colorado College.
The museum has a permanent collection of about 17,000 objects. Multiple galleries focus on “Art of the Southwest” (be sure to spend time in the Blessing Gallery, and also to check out Jerry Vigil’s Saint Drogo, Patron of Coffee Houses). The Loo Gallery houses the “O Beautiful! Shifting Landscapes of the Pikes Peak Region” exhibit. Nearby Pikes Peak was (and is) the inspiration for visual artists, and its “purple mountain majesties” were part of the inspiration for poetry verses written by Katharine Lee Bates in the 1890s which eventually became the U.S. patriotic song America The Beautiful.
The FAC also is home to a theatre (with three shows remaining in its 2024-25 season), and an art school.
DAY 1, 11:45 a.m.
Miramont Castle was built in the late 1890s as a personal home for a Catholic priest (originally from France) and his mother, and was named Miramont because of its mountain views. After many different uses (including as a sanitarium), it was purchased by the Manitou Springs Historical Society in 1976. The castle is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The castle consists of 30 rooms over four storeys, and through the continuing restoration work of the historical society, resembles how it would have looked in the 1890s. The pamphlet we received at the start of our tour had detailed information about each room, and recommended that we notice how the rooms have unusual shapes — “a design which typified the Victorian Era.”
A highlight is the hall on the second floor which contains a parlour and a music alcove connected by a Moorish arch. That hall also has a 20-ton red sandstone fireplace.
Note: While two chairlifts have been added to the building, anyone with mobility issues might find going from floor to floor a challenge.
Midway through our tour, we stopped for afternoon tea in the Queen’s Parlour Tea Room (reservations required), located on the castle’s second floor.
The castle’s 1890s aura extended to the tea room. Our server Lisa was dressed in period costume, and fancy hats were available for fashionable ladies to wear. Yes, Ruth wore one, of course. The scone, main course (including chicken soup inside a tiny bread bowl), dessert, fruit bowl and tea were healthy and filling. From our table next to a window, we could look out and see the greenery on the surrounding hills.
The tour ends on the top floor of the castle, where the exit led us outside to the pleasant Victorian Gardens.
DAY 1, 2:30 p.m.
The headquarters of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) are in Colorado Springs. Many athletes live in Colorado Springs to work out at the USOPC’s training centre and to challenge their bodies against the altitude.
The museum serves as a tribute to those athletes, past and present, who have performed at the Olympics or Paralympics. Understandably, the main focus is on U.S. athletes, such as figure skater Peggy Fleming, who trained in Colorado Springs and won Olympic gold in the ladies’ event in 1968.
Boys and girls who are aspiring athletes — or who just have a lot of extra energy — will enjoy the interactive parts of the museum, where they can experience any or all of six activities: A 30-metre run, alpine skiing, archery, goalball, skeleton, and sled hockey.
DAY 1, 4 p.m.
Time to check in to our accommodations for the evening.
The Broadmoor is wonderful, but travellers who would prefer a more economical option, and a downtown location, should consider the Hilton Garden Inn Colorado Springs Downtown, which is where we stayed.
DAY 1, 6 p.m.
The restaurant part of The Warehouse features the creations of Chef James Africano, who offers seasonal menus based on local in-season products. Ruth enjoyed the “Green Legs and Ham” (frog legs!), while I savoured the blue corn-dusted steelhead trout tacos. Africano incorporates many game meats, such as yak, elk, and bison, in his entrees.
Be sure to check out the wraparound mural on three exterior walls of the building.
DAY 2, 9:30 a.m.
The immense area was owned by Charles Elliott Perkins in the late part of the 19th century. Shortly after his death, his children handed over the land to the city of Colorado Springs to be used as a public park, with no admission charge.
Garden of the Gods is filled with many large and unique rock formations, most of which are shades of red because of the iron oxide in the soil. You don’t have to be a geologist to appreciate the rock formations — just look and enjoy.
While the area is popular with hikers, horseback riders, and as a wedding venue (no permit required), we did our exploring on a 1909 Trolley tour (for which there is a charge). Our driver, Smokey, took our group, which also included visitors from Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas, on a 50-minute excursion through the park. Since there is no charge to drive through the park, the benefit of paying for the trolley tour was Smokey’s informed and humorous commentary on what we were seeing. “You took this tour to learn some stuff,” Smokey said.
After our 1909 Trolley tour, the learning continued at the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center, which sits just outside the park itself.
A 15-minute movie, How Did Those Red Rocks Get There?, explains what scientists think happened over many, many years to cause the land to look the way it does. Exhibits educate visitors on the area’s history, geology, and the flora and fauna which exist in the park.
MORE TO SEE AND DO
Our two peeks at Colorado Springs, like a delightful appetizer, have left us hungry for more.
If we are fortunate enough to go there for a third time, here are two of the many spots we have yet to see: