Colorado Springs: USAFA, Broadmoor & Cheyenne Mountain

The USAFA campus (18,000 acres north of Colorado Springs) was designed by SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) and completed between 1954 and 1962 — a modernist masterplan with the Cadet Chapel as its architectural centerpiece. The chapel's 17 aluminum spires rise 150 feet and are visible from I-25; the interior holds three separate worship spaces (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) stacked vertically within the same structure. The visitor center is open to the public; during school year, the 14,000-person Noon Meal Formation (cadets marching to lunch) is viewable from the terrazzo at noon. Free admission.

A 1916 elementary school on Nevada Avenue converted into a food and drink hall with Bristol Brewing Company as the anchor tenant. The pub pours Bristol's full lineup — Beehive Honey Wheat, Laughing Lab Scottish Ale, Winter Warlock Oatmeal Stout — alongside rotating craft food vendors in the original schoolrooms. The gymnasium's vaulted ceiling and gymnasium equipment remnants make for one of Colorado's most distinctive brewery settings.

The only mountain zoo in the United States, built into the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain at 6,800 feet — with giraffe feeding stations, a Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit featuring native species, and a carousel built in 1918. The zoo's setting means many enclosures have Pikes Peak or Colorado Springs city views as backdrop. The Mountaineer Sky Ride gives an aerial view of the 140-acre property.

The 1918 Italian Renaissance resort at the base of Cheyenne Mountain has seven restaurants ranging from the Penrose Room (formal, jacket required, sky views) to the Golden Bee (a 19th-century English pub relocated from London). The Broadmoor has hosted seven US presidents and defines the historic resort hotel tradition in the American West. Dinner at the Tavern (Colorado game and beef, semiformal) is the middle ground between the extremes.

Commercial cave tours have operated here since 1881, making this Colorado's oldest continuously running tourist attraction. The cave system developed in Ordovician limestone (470 million years old) above Manitou Springs through dissolution by slightly acidic groundwater over millions of years. The Discovery Tour (45 minutes, lit walkways) visits stalactite and stalagmite chambers; the Lantern Tour recreates the original 1880s cave-by-lantern experience. The Terror-Dactyl zip line and Via Ferrata (added in 2017) operate on the cliff face above the cave entrance.

Eight natural carbonated mineral springs still flow from ornate Victorian drinking fountains throughout Manitou Springs — the springs were promoted as health cures from 1872 onward, and the town's Victorian character derives from the resort-seekers who built it. The springs vary in mineral content from iron-heavy Shoshone Spring to the almost-fizzy Iron Geyser; a self-guided map from the Chamber of Commerce identifies all eight. The 1872 Manitou Springs Hotel site (now a different building) and the bathhouses that processed thousands of patients weekly in the 1890s are marked.

A Colorado culinary landmark since 1942 in a 1912 English Tudor building on Engleman Avenue — the Craftwood serves Colorado game (elk, venison, bison) and local produce in an intimate dining room with Pikes Peak views from the terrace. The wine list emphasizes Colorado mountain wines and the cocktail program uses Colorado spirits. Reservations essential on weekends.

A former cable car railway converted into a hiking trail — 2,744 railroad ties ascending 2,000 feet in 0.9 miles on Manitou Springs' western hillside, with grades reaching 68%. The Incline is one of the most intense short hikes in Colorado; the top connects to the Barr Trail which descends back to town (3 miles, moderate) or continues to Pikes Peak summit (12 miles). The top of the Incline at 8,590 feet gives views over Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs to the plains beyond.