Manitou Springs

Manitou Springs announces its personality immediately: painted Victorian storefronts, a strong whiff of patchouli from an incense shop, and a public drinking fountain gushing naturally carbonated mineral water right there on the sidewalk. Lia and I filled our water bottles at the Navajo Spring fountain downtown, grimaced at the mildly metallic taste, and kept drinking anyway, following a self-guided map of the town’s eight free mineral springs like a scavenger hunt. Founded as a genteel Gilded Age health resort at the literal foot of Pikes Peak, the town has since traded its cure-seeking Victorians for artists, climbers, and the occasional psychic reading a tarot deck in a shopfront window.

The Incline and Pikes Peak

The reason most visitors show up, though, sits just above town: the Manitou Incline, a former funicular railway converted into a punishing staircase that gains roughly 2,000 feet of elevation in under a mile. We climbed it at dawn to beat the July heat, lungs burning, legs shaking by the final pitch, and descended via the much gentler Barr Trail switchbacks with our knees grateful for the mercy. For those less inclined toward self-punishment, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway departs from the edge of town and climbs all the way to the 14,115-foot summit, where we later stood shivering in shorts, looking out over a view that inspired the writing of “America the Beautiful.”

Garden of the Gods and downtown evenings

Just north of town, the red sandstone spires of Garden of the Gods rise out of the plains in improbable formations, and we spent a golden-hour walk weaving between towering rock fins with Pikes Peak glowing pink behind them. Back in Manitou that evening, the town’s compact main strip came alive with string lights and the smell of green chile from roadside stands; we ate a plate of Colorado-style burritos smothered in it, then wandered into a penny arcade that’s operated continuously since the 1970s, feeding quarters into machines older than either of us.

Getting There

Colorado Springs Airport is the closest, about a twenty-minute drive east, with direct flights from most major U.S. hubs. Denver International Airport, roughly ninety minutes north, often has cheaper fares and is a straightforward drive down I-25. Manitou Springs itself is small and walkable once you’ve parked, with a free local shuttle connecting downtown to the Incline and Cog Railway trailheads during peak season, though a car remains the easiest way to reach Garden of the Gods and the surrounding trails.