A Local's Advice...
Bail
on the boring, stuffy Broadmoor and head for a chain hotel. (While it is lovely
and the service supreme, it is expensive – especially if you will be sightseeing
all day and won’t be there to enjoy the amenities. Save your stay for a “parents’
only” getaway!) There are several new budget-oriented hotel on the north end
of town, so if you book one, make sure it’s north of Academy or near Interquest.
Want a destination-stop hotel? Check out Glen Eyrie, which features the founder
of Colorado Springs’s own amazing 67-room Tudor castle in one of the most
fantastic locales in the Springs (and right outside Garden of the Gods). The
rooms in the castle are a bit spendy, but they also have motel-type rooms
in Big Horn, which is right across from the castle and in the same great glen
(and about the same cost as those budget-chain hotels). It’s a retreat center,
but often has extra space…and pretty great food (served cafeteria style in
a castle basement dining room) to boot. Check it out at
www.navigators.org/us/ministries/gleneyrie/
If
you stay at the Glen, be sure to take the kids and hike up to the falls right
on the property. For the stronger, more adventurous troop, there are additional
“punch bowls” that you can hike to, scrambling up a long, high hill and going
farther in. In the Spring, there is a waterfall, and you go back and forth
over the creek, so where wear water-friendly shoes (or don’t get upset when
they get their new tennies wet.)
Explore
Garden of the Gods and the visitor’s center, which can easily be done in half
a day. The other half of the day, check out Seven Falls, about a twenty minute
drive. Or go to the local Cheyenne Mountain Zoo—focusing on the giraffes (kids
can place crackers on their long, disgusting tongues—get a morning preview
via the zoo’s giraffe live cam at
www.cmzoo.org/zoocam.html ), real Meerkats (if you’re a fan of Meerkat
Manor) and the primate/gorilla exhibits. Terrific! The zoo is perched on the
side of a mountain, so if anyone has difficulty walking/hiking, you might
skip this stop. They rent strollers if you don’t have one for the little one.
For more info, go to www.cmzoo.org
Downtown, there’s the Pioneer Museum (http://www.springsgov.com/cspm/),
Money Museum (www.money.org)
and the Fine Arts Center Museum (www.csfineartscenter.org/Collections.asp)—all
three small, but nicely done. None of them would take more than 1-3 hours
to peruse for the typical family, depending on level of interest. Lunch at
Phantom Canyon Brewing Company (2 E. Pikes Peak)—great food. Or you can go
there for dinner and then take in a movie at an old-fashioned downtown theater
(but they often play artsy, adult-oriented movies.) Mom and Dad can even purchase
a glass of wine and take it in with them for the show. Be sure to stop at
the local ice-cream favorite, Josh & John’s next door to the theater.
We get some pretty decent theater opportunities too, at the Pikes Peak Center
downtown (www.pikespeakcenter.com/
).
There
are several parks we’d recommend to let the kids play and wear themselves
out (while you enjoy the pretty mountain view). Bear Creek Canon on the south
side of town and Cottonwood Creek Park on the north side of town are both
good stops. Cottonwood also has an indoor wave pool, lazy river and slide
that has lifeguards; parents can sit outside the door and stare at the mountains
while the kids play, if they don’t care to swim too. For a complete list of
Colorado Springs parks, go to www.springsgov.com/Page.asp?NavID=788#sc
A couple other “no entrance fee” options definitely worth seeing are the Air
Force Academy (www.usafa.af.mil)
and the Olympic Training Center (www.usoc.org/12181_19096.htm).
Things to do within 1-3 hours of driving:
• Great Sand Dunes (www.nps.gov/grsa/
)
• Raft the Royal Gorge (beware the big entry fee to walk the bridge high above;
we’d rather raft below)
• Ski Monarch or Copper Mountain
• Hike to the Crags up in the mountains (www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.asp?trailid=HGR181-020
)
• Hike in Castlewood Canyon State Park off of Hwy. 83 (http://parks.state.co.us/parks/castlewoodcanyon/
).