Colorado Springs

The Colorado Springs Company laid out a settlement here in 1871 called Fountain Colony, renamed Colorado Springs the same year, and incorporated it on June 19, 1886. It has since grown outward more than any other municipality in the state: 195.8 square miles of total area, the largest of any city in Colorado. That sprawl is why the drives inside the city line are longer than the map suggests, and why the Front Range is a backdrop from almost everywhere in it. The city sits at roughly 6,000 feet — its own reference sources disagree on the exact figure by about twenty-four feet.

The mountain west of town is the reason most people have heard a Colorado Springs fact without knowing it. Katharine Lee Bates came to Colorado to teach a summer course in 1893, went up Pikes Peak, and wrote “America the Beautiful” after seeing the view from the summit that July. The summit height itself is in the same quiet argument Denver is having on its Capitol steps: the long-quoted figure is 14,115 feet, while the newer national datum puts it at 14,107. Neither number is a correction of a mistake. They are answers to the same question asked with different instruments.

Garden of the Gods is a National Natural Landmark, and the fins are sandstone tilted on end by the same uplift that raised the range behind them. The park is run as a public-private partnership between the city's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services department, the Visitor and Nature Center, and the Garden of the Gods Foundation — an arrangement that exists precisely because the entrance cannot be charged for. The money has to come from somewhere other than the gate.

Garden of the Gods is the anchor, and entry to both the park and the Visitor and Nature Center is free. It is a city park rather than a state or national one, which is why there is no pass to buy and no booth to stop at. The constraint is not money, it is parking.

The Airplane Restaurant at 1665 Newport Road is built around a fully intact Boeing KC-97 tanker that was constructed in 1953 and used for mid-air refuelling before it was grounded; the dining room runs through the fuselage, and the cockpit is open to walk into. The restaurant took the aircraft on in May 2002. Hours are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, closed Thanksgiving, with reduced hours around Christmas and New Year. It sits east of downtown near the airport rather than on the Garden side of the city, so it is a separate trip, not a stop on the way.

15 breweries within 10 miles of Colorado Springs, 7 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

The major-league venues are in the Denver area: Coors Field (Rockies), Empower Field at Mile High (Broncos) and Ball Arena (Nuggets and Avalanche) are in Denver, and Dick's Sporting Goods Park (Rapids) is in Commerce City. Visit Colorado Springs places Colorado Springs 70 miles south of Denver on Interstate 25. The professional soccer side and the service-academy football programme listed above are the ones based inside the city.

*Fees subject to change, please check drivepikespeak.com for updated information.

*Fees subject to change, please check nps.gov for updated information.

22 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of Colorado Springs in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• Dinosaur RidgeColoradoabout 60 mi
• Red Rocks Park & AmphitheatreColoradoabout 60 mi
• Buffalo Bill Museum and GraveColoradoabout 65 mi
• DenverColoradoabout 65 mi
• Denver Art MuseumColoradoabout 65 mi
• Mount Blue Sky Scenic BywayColoradoabout 70 mi
• GeorgetownColoradoabout 75 mi
• Georgetown Loop Historic Mining & Railroad ParkColoradoabout 75 mi
• Idaho SpringsColoradoabout 75 mi
• Loveland PassColoradoabout 80 mi
• BoulderColoradoabout 85 mi
• Frisco Historic Park & MuseumColoradoabout 85 mi
• Camp Hale-Continental Divide National MonumentColoradoabout 90 mi
• Colorado Snowsports Museum and Hall of FameColoradoabout 100 mi
• Estes ParkColoradoabout 110 mi
• Rocky Mountain National ParkColoradoabout 120 mi
• Glenwood Canyon rest areas and recreation pathColoradoabout 140 mi
• Glenwood Hot Springs ResortColoradoabout 140 mi
• Hanging LakeColoradoabout 140 mi
• CheyenneWyomingabout 160 mi
• Rifle Falls State ParkColoradoabout 160 mi
• TaosNew Mexicoabout 170 mi

• Bishop CastleOdd building / architectureRyeabout 55 miles away

  Cost to see it

  Free

  When you can see it

  We did not find opening times published

  Nearest road

  CO-165

  One man's stone-and-iron castle with a dragon

  • Fine for most children, but look it over before you let them loose

  Read on the page we checked

These are things you can go and look at, not a recommendation of any of them. Oddities move, get sold and quietly disappear more than anything else we list, so check anything you are driving a long way for. Where this list says we did not find a price or opening times published, that is exactly what we mean. A blank is not “free” and not “always open”. Some sit on private land and can only be seen from the road — please do not go onto anyone’s property. Every entry links the page we read it off.

One day covers the Garden and downtown. Pikes Peak is its own day, whichever way you go up, and the gorge or Cripple Creek is a third.

The altitude stacks. The city is at about 6,000 feet and the summit is over 14,000, so the mountain day asks for more acclimatisation than the city does. Weather at the top is a different season from the weather at the bottom on the same afternoon.

Garden parking is the bottleneck, not the entry. Entry is free and the lots are not large; the free summer shuttle and an early start are the two ways around it.

I-25 runs the length of the city, and because Colorado Springs covers more ground than any other municipality in Colorado, crossing from the Garden side to the airport side is a real drive rather than a hop.

7 public campgrounds within 25 miles of Colorado Springs, all bookable ahead. Public campgrounds run by federal agencies. State-park and private campgrounds are not included.

Garden of the Gods

Address

Visitor and Nature Center, 1805 N. 30th Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80904

Park hours

5:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. November 1–April 30; 5:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m. May 1–October 31

Center hours

Daily from 9:00 a.m.; to 5:00 p.m. in winter and to 6:00 p.m. Memorial Day weekend–Labor Day weekend; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day

Price

Free — park and visitor center both

Phone

719-634-6666

Link

gardenofgods.com

We checked opening hours, operating status, closures, fees and reservations on 2026-10-12. These change without notice — confirm with gardenofgods.com, theairplanerestaurant.com, nps.gov, manitousprings.org, en.wikipedia.org and drivepikespeak.com the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Colorado Springs, not drive time.

• City of Colorado Springs Municipal (COS) — 7 miles
• Pueblo Memorial (PUB) — 42 miles
• Centennial (APA) — 51 miles