Manitou Springs, Colorado: Pikes Peak’s Quirky, Historic, and Irresistibly Weird Mountain Town

Manitou Springs sits hidden in a narrow, forested canyon just outside Colorado Springs, up at 6,412 feet. It’s not like anywhere else in the Rockies. You get sacred Native American mineral springs, grand old Victorian resorts, Colorado’s steepest hike, the world’s highest cog railway, ancient cliff dwellings, a legit castle, and a wild, creative arts scene — all packed into one walkable mile of main street.

The town started back in 1872 as a “scenic health resort,” dreamed up by the same guy who founded Colorado Springs. For more than 150 years, people have come here looking for something: healing waters, that crisp mountain air, a little adventure, a burst of inspiration, or just a place that doesn’t try to fit in. Locals are fiercely proud of that. Their motto says it all: “Keep Manitou Weird.”

Pikes Peak looms almost 8,000 feet above, and you can actually hear and taste the mineral springs bubbling up through the sidewalks downtown. Manitou Springs doesn’t just call itself unique — it lives it.

Quick Facts

Sacred Waters to Victorian Resort: The History of Manitou Springs

Long before a single Victorian hotel rose above the canyon floor, the mineral springs of Manitou held a sacred place in the spiritual geography of the Southern Plains and Mountain Ute peoples. The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute nations all made pilgrimages to the springs, believing the naturally carbonated water — with its mysterious bubbles rising through ancient limestone — to be the breath of the Great Spirit Manitou, exhaled from deep within the earth as a gift of healing and renewal. The name Manitou itself derives from the Algonquian word for “great spirit” or “the divine,” and the springs were considered neutral ground where warring tribes could gather in peace. When European explorers and fur trappers first encountered the springs in the early 19th century, they found a landscape already rich with human meaning.

The commercial transformation of Manitou began in 1872, when General William Jackson Palmer — the founder and visionary behind neighboring Colorado Springs — partnered with British physician Dr. William Abraham Bell to establish a planned resort community around the springs. Palmer and Bell recognized in Manitou something increasingly prized in the Victorian era: a confluence of natural beauty, mineral water of apparent therapeutic value, and proximity to one of the most dramatic mountain settings in North America. They envisioned a European-style spa town, a Colorado answer to the fashionable mineral resorts of Germany and England, and they platted the community accordingly — with winding roads that followed the contours of the canyon rather than the rigid grid of American frontier towns. The town was formally incorporated in 1888.

The springs attracted two very different categories of visitor in the late 19th century, and their coexistence gave Manitou its distinctive character. Wealthy tourists arrived by train — a railroad spur from Colorado Springs opened in 1881, transforming Manitou from a remote curiosity into an accessible resort — and filled the grand hotels that proliferated along Manitou Avenue through the 1880s and 1890s. By the peak of the boom era, the town boasted seven major hotels including the elegant Cliff House, the Barker House, and the Grandview. These visitors came for the scenery, the novelty of the springs, and the social cachet of a fashionable mountain resort that attracted celebrated names including P.T. Barnum, Thomas Edison, President Ulysses S. Grant, and actress Lillie Langtry.

Alongside these leisured guests, Manitou also served as a destination for tuberculosis patients drawn by the altitude and the clean, dry mountain air. The high elevation genuinely impeded the growth of mycobacterium tuberculosis, and physicians of the era sent their most seriously ill patients to Colorado’s mountain communities as a last resort. Sanitariums and purpose-built “cure cottages” — small, windowed huts designed to maximize fresh air circulation — dotted the hillsides above Manitou Avenue, making the town simultaneously a pleasure resort and a medical community. The tuberculosis trade was, for a time, the dominant economic engine of the entire Pikes Peak region.

The arrival of the automobile in the early 20th century reshaped Manitou as it did every Colorado resort town. Visitors stayed for days rather than weeks, arrived by car rather than train, and demanded different amenities. The grand hotel era gave way to autocourt motels, and the springs themselves fell into neglect as water cures fell out of medical fashion. By mid-century Manitou had stagnated, its Victorian buildings decaying and its economy struggling. The revival came in the 1970s, driven by the designation of the Manitou Springs Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and the formation of the Mineral Springs Foundation in 1987 to restore and protect the town’s eight public springs. An arts colony took root in the affordable historic storefronts, galleries replaced vacant shops, and Manitou began its transformation into the eclectic, fiercely independent community it is today.

The Mineral Springs: Ancient Waters, Free for the Tasting

The eight mineral springs of Manitou remain the town’s most distinctive and most democratic attraction — ancient, free, and unlike anything else in Colorado. Each spring has its own character, shaped by the specific geology of its source. The water originates as rain and snowmelt from Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountains, percolating down through rock fractures over thousands of years, becoming heated and mineralized as it descends, then naturally carbonating in cavernous limestone before rising back to the surface through the Rampart Range and Ute Pass fault zones. Scientists have determined that a significant portion of the carbon dioxide — which can reach nearly 99 percent purity — originates from deep within the earth’s outer mantle, making Manitou’s waters genuinely rare on a geological scale.

The springs are distributed throughout the historic downtown, each marked with a drinking fountain and a placard describing its history and mineral composition. Navajo Spring, located beneath the present-day popcorn and candy store on Manitou Avenue, is considered the founding spring — the one that first attracted Native Americans and early settlers to the site, and that fed the first commercial bottling operation in 1872. Cheyenne Spring, a naturally sweet soda spring drawing from limestone aquifers a mile deep, is estimated to be 20,000 years old. Seven Minute Spring earned its name from the carbonation-driven eruptions that originally occurred at regular seven-minute intervals; today it has been redrilled and flows continuously from a beautifully restored park setting. Wheeler Spring was donated to the city by the family of Jerome Wheeler — of the New York Macy’s dynasty — who lived and invested in Manitou during the boom years.

The Mineral Springs Foundation, an all-volunteer nonprofit, maintains and protects the springs as a permanent public resource. Free sipping cups and a mineral-springs brochure with a self-guided walking tour are available from the Chamber of Commerce. The Springsabouts Walking Tours, offered by the Foundation, provide guided exploration of all nine spring sites with geological and historical commentary. SunWater Spa takes the springs experience a step further with cedar soaking tubs fed directly by Seven Minute Spring, offering one of the most genuinely restorative experiences available in the Colorado mountains.

The Manitou Incline: Colorado’s Most Notorious Hike

No single attraction defines Manitou Springs’ modern identity more completely than the Manitou Incline — a brutally direct ascent up the face of Red Mountain that has become one of the most sought-after physical challenges in the Rocky Mountain West. The trail is, in essence, a decommissioned cable car track: originally built in the early 1900s to support a water pipeline up the mountain’s flank, it was converted into a funicular railway and later abandoned after a rockslide destroyed the upper section. The exposed ties were left in place, and local athletes began using them as an informal training trail. The Incline eventually attracted a national following, was formally regulated and opened to the public, and now requires a free advance reservation through the City of Colorado Springs website.

The numbers tell the story of why this trail has become a bucket-list experience for fitness enthusiasts across the country. The Incline covers less than one mile of horizontal distance while climbing 1,912 feet of vertical elevation — an average grade of 45 percent, with sections approaching 68 percent near the top. Its 2,768 railway tie steps make it essentially a giant outdoor staircase that simply does not relent. On clear summer mornings, a steady stream of hikers can be seen ascending the unforgiving slope against the backdrop of Pikes Peak, their pace slowing visibly as the grade steepens. Elite athletes run it in under 20 minutes; most hikers take 45 minutes to an hour to reach the summit. The descent is made via the gentler Barr Trail, which winds back down to Manitou Avenue through pine forest and connects to the same trail used for the legendary Pikes Peak Marathon.

The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway: Summit in Style

For those who prefer their summit experience with considerably less cardiac strain, the Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway has been carrying passengers from the canyon floor to the top of America’s Mountain since 1891 — making it one of the oldest continuously operating cog railways in the world and the highest of its kind anywhere on the planet. The nine-mile journey ascends 7,540 vertical feet through six distinct life zones, from the montane scrub oak and ponderosa pine of the lower canyon through subalpine spruce and fir forest to the windswept, treeless tundra of the summit plateau, arriving at 14,115 feet above sea level with panoramic views extending across hundreds of miles of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico on clear days.

The railway underwent an extensive modernization in recent years, with entirely new railcars and a rebuilt depot in Manitou Springs and a dramatically expanded Summit Visitor Center at the top featuring more viewing space, better facilities, and the famous Pikes Peak summit donuts — a tradition that has outlasted every other aspect of the summit experience’s evolution. The round-trip journey takes approximately three hours, with ample time at the summit for photos, exploration, and acclimatization to an altitude that leaves many visitors mildly short of breath. Adventurous riders can purchase one-way tickets and descend via the Barr Trail — a full-day undertaking that combines the railway’s effortless ascent with a demanding 13-mile hike down through the mountain’s full ecological range.

Cave of the Winds, Miramont Castle, and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings

Cave of the Winds Mountain Park, perched on a dramatic limestone ridge just west of Manitou Springs along Highway 24, has grown from a single cave tour operation into one of the most comprehensive adventure attractions in the Pikes Peak region. The original Discovery Tour — a 45- to 60-minute guided walk through half a mile of illuminated passageways carved by millions of years of water dissolving the limestone bedrock — remains the heart of the experience, revealing formations including stalactites, stalagmites, and the rare cave popcorn in chambers that were first explored commercially in the 1880s. The more adventurous Haunted Lantern Tour explores a full mile of unimproved passageways by lantern light with ghost stories drawn from the cave’s colorful history. Above ground, the park has added a Via Ferrata climbing route, a frontier zipline, a high-ropes aerial challenge course, and the Terro-dactyl — a swing that launches riders over the canyon edge at speeds that tend to produce involuntary sounds.

Miramont Castle, rising on Capitol Hill above Ruxton Avenue in the heart of Manitou Springs, is one of the most architecturally extraordinary buildings in Colorado — a sprawling Victorian mansion built in 1895 by Father Jean-Baptiste Francolon, a French Catholic priest who incorporated nine distinct architectural styles into a single structure, including Romanesque, Tudor, Flemish, and Byzantine elements. The castle passed through several owners and uses over the decades — including a period as a tuberculosis sanitarium — before being acquired by the Manitou Springs Historical Society and opened as a museum. Self-guided tours wind through rooms showcasing Victorian furnishings, local history exhibits, and the castle’s remarkable architectural details, including the famous 8-sided and 16-sided rooms. The Queen’s Parlour Tea Room offers one of the most atmospheric dining experiences in the Pikes Peak region — high tea served in a period-decorated setting with replica tin ceilings, original brickwork, and the genuine feeling of stepping back to the 1890s.

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings, located just west of town along Highway 24, offer a hands-on encounter with the architectural legacy of the Ancestral Puebloan people who inhabited the canyon lands of the Four Corners region more than 700 years ago. The structures were carefully dismantled and relocated from McElmo Canyon in southwestern Colorado in the early 1900s — an act of preservation controversial by modern archaeological standards but motivated by a genuine desire to protect the ruins from looters and weather damage. Visitors are uniquely permitted to enter, touch, and explore the 40-room complex, squeezing through narrow doorways and into small chambers in a way that no intact archaeological site would allow. The adjacent Pueblo and Cave Museums display original Anasazi weapons, pottery, and artifacts alongside exhibits on daily life in the cliff-dwelling communities.

Arts, Festivals, and the Town That Keeps Itself Weird

Manitou Springs has spent the past four decades building one of the most vibrant small-town arts scenes in Colorado, a transformation driven by the affordability and character of its Victorian commercial district and the gravitational pull of its natural beauty on creative people. Galleries, studios, and artist cooperatives line Manitou Avenue and spill onto the side streets, representing a range of mediums from oil painting and sculpture to ceramics, jewelry, and outsider art. The Commonwheel Artists Co-op, a community institution for more than 50 years, anchors the arts community with rotating shows and the celebrated Commonwheel Labor Day Art Festival — a free, multi-day outdoor event that brings artists from across Colorado and the region to Soda Springs Park. Monthly Art Walks draw visitors into the galleries on weekend evenings with extended hours, live music, and the particular energy of a town that takes its creative identity seriously.

Manitou’s festival calendar is a reflection of its character: eclectic, irreverent, and reliably entertaining. The Emma Crawford Coffin Races in late October are the most famous, drawing thousands of spectators to watch elaborately decorated coffins — each bearing an “Emma” — race down Manitou Avenue to the cheers of a costumed crowd. The event commemorates Emma Crawford, a tuberculosis patient who died in 1891 and was buried atop Red Mountain per her wishes; erosion eventually dislodged her coffin, which tumbled down the hillside, giving birth to one of the most gleefully morbid civic traditions in American small-town life. Other annual events include the Carnivale celebration in late winter, the Manitou Springs Colorado Wine Festival in June, the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon in August, free summer concerts in Soda Springs Park every Monday and Friday evening, and the Great Fruitcake Toss in January — a competition whose name describes it exactly and completely.

The Iron Springs Chateau Melodrama Dinner Theater on Ruxton Avenue has been delighting audiences since the Victorian era with a formula of dinner, comedy, melodrama, and audience participation that has changed very little in a century — which is precisely its appeal. The theater is one of the oldest continuously operating dinner theaters in the United States and embodies the particular Manitou gift for combining genuine historical character with genuine fun. The Penny Arcade, a long-running downtown institution, provides nostalgic entertainment across generations with vintage machines, redemption games, and the kind of unhurried amusement that resists the usual pressures of 21st-century speed.

Dining and the Local Scene

Manitou Springs enforces an informal but deeply felt policy of local ownership — there are no chain restaurants in the historic downtown, and the more than 30 locally owned eateries crammed into a three-mile radius represent one of the most character-rich dining scenes of any small Colorado town. Briarhurst Manor, the Victorian estate built by founder Dr. William Bell and now operating as a fine dining restaurant of national reputation, anchors the upper end of the dining spectrum with five-course meals served in original period rooms surrounded by manicured gardens. The Cliff House at Pikes Peak, a meticulously restored historic hotel dating to 1873, provides both lodging and an elevated dining experience in one of the most atmospheric Victorian buildings in Colorado.

The casual dining scene is equally rich. Adam’s Mountain Café has been a local institution for decades, known for globally inspired cuisine made entirely from scratch with a commitment to vegetarian and vegan options that reflects Manitou’s progressive food culture. Mona Lisa Fondue Restaurant brings European tradition to Ruxton Avenue with a menu built around the convivial, slow-dining ritual of shared pots. Patsy’s Candies, a Manitou institution since 1903, produces handmade chocolates, taffy, and fudge from recipes that have survived more than a century of the town’s transformations. The Armadillo Ranch provides the live music, craft drinks, and comfort food combination that makes it a natural gathering spot for locals and visitors alike on warm evenings when the patio fills and the canyon amplifies the sound.

Climate and Best Times to Visit

Sitting at 6,412 feet — roughly 2,000 feet above Colorado Springs and 8,000 feet below the summit of Pikes Peak — Manitou Springs enjoys a moderate mountain climate that is genuinely appealing in all four seasons. Summer highs average around 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, with cooler temperatures than the plains cities below and reliably low humidity. The canyon setting provides natural shade and the sensation of being tucked into the mountain rather than exposed to it, which makes Manitou noticeably more comfortable on hot summer days than the flatlands to the east. Afternoon thunderstorms arrive most days in July and August, usually brief and dramatic. The spring and fall shoulder seasons, with daytime temperatures in the 50s and 60s, offer the best combination of mild weather, smaller crowds, and spectacular scenery — fall in particular, when the aspen groves on the hillsides above town turn gold, is considered by many locals the finest season of all.

Winter brings occasional snow and cold snaps, but Manitou’s lower elevation and sheltered canyon position mean it receives less snowfall and milder conditions than the Summit County ski towns. Many winter days reach the 50s under clear blue skies, making Manitou a viable year-round destination for those willing to dress in layers. The Cog Railway operates year-round with reduced schedules in winter. The cave and castle tours run throughout the cold months, and the holiday season brings its own program of Victorian-themed events including the Iron Springs Chateau Christmas celebration and ghost tours of the historic district.

Planning Your Visit

Getting There: Manitou Springs sits six miles west of downtown Colorado Springs via Highway 24 — a 10- to 15-minute drive. From Denver, take I-25 south to the Cimarron/Highway 24 exit in Colorado Springs and continue west approximately 75 miles, or about 1 hour 20 minutes total. Colorado Springs Airport (COS) is the closest commercial airport, roughly 25 minutes away. Denver International Airport is about 90 minutes north via I-25.

Getting Around: The historic downtown is exceptionally walkable, with the springs, galleries, restaurants, and most shops clustered along Manitou Avenue and Ruxton Avenue within comfortable strolling distance. Parking in downtown Manitou can be challenging on summer weekends — use the paid lots or the Dillon Mobility Hub at 134 Manitou Avenue, which connects to a free shuttle (Route 33) serving downtown, the Incline trailhead, and the Cog Railway depot. The free Mountain Metro Route 3 bus connects Manitou to Colorado Springs throughout the day.

Best Time to Visit: Summer (June through August) for the full attractions lineup, festival season, and peak Incline traffic — arrive early on summer weekends. Fall (September through October) for the Emma Crawford Coffin Races, spectacular aspen color, and smaller crowds. Spring (April through May) for wildflowers, mild temperatures, and the town at its quietest. Winter for uncrowded historic exploration, Victorian holiday events, and the surreal experience of the Pikes Peak summit in snow season.

Lodging & Budget: Manitou Springs offers an unusually diverse range of accommodations anchored by its historic Victorian properties. The Cliff House at Pikes Peak is the premier luxury option, a National Register property with 54 individually designed rooms. The Briarhurst Manor Estate hosts intimate overnight stays alongside its famous restaurant. Dozens of bed-and-breakfasts, inns, and historic motels occupy buildings dating back to the resort era, offering charm and character at a range of price points. The town is considerably more affordable than Colorado’s mountain ski resorts and provides easy access to all of the Pikes Peak region’s major attractions without paying Colorado Springs hotel prices.

Whether you are climbing 2,768 railway ties straight up a 45-percent grade in the pre-dawn dark, riding a cog railway to 14,115 feet while watching the landscape compress from forest to tundra in the span of an hour, sipping naturally carbonated water that has been rising through ancient limestone since the last ice age, wandering through the rooms of a genuine Victorian castle over high tea, or simply sitting on a Manitou Avenue patio as the canyon walls glow in late-afternoon light, Manitou Springs delivers Colorado experiences that are genuinely singular. It is a town that has been weird, wonderful, and entirely itself since 1872 — and shows no signs of changing.

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