Colorado Springs Free Things to Do: Garden of the Gods, Helen Hunt Falls, Art on the Street, and More!
Colorado Springs Mural
When: Wednesday May 26, to Wednesday June 2, 2021
Where: Colorado Springs
Cost: Free (except for the beer)
Bucket Lists: Helen Hunt Falls, Garden of the Gods
Beer: Smiling Toad Brewing (Old Colorado City)
I’m always looking for a good deal. The great thing about Mother Nature is that it’s usually completely free. In the Colorado Springs area, I’d recommend both Helen Hunt Falls and Garden of the Gods. For those not wanting to fight the crowds, our experience at Red Rock Canyon Open Space is great alternative as I wrote about here.
Humpty Dumpty (Skier) in Colorado Springs - Art in the Streets 2021
If nature isn’t your thing, the public art scene in Colorado Springs is phenomenal. The video above at 4:41 includes a montage of some of the statues, murals, and other works we encountered during our stay. Most are part of the city’s Art on the Streets program.
Helen Hunt Falls
Helen Hunt Falls is part of North Cheyenne Cañon Park. Many of the “top things” lists about Colorado Springs include the falls so we were anxious to see it. Unfortunately, the scenic 2.5 mile drive along North Cheyenne Canyon Road was closed except for construction traffic during much of our stay. We were therefore forced to visit the falls on a rainy Sunday. That turned out to be to our benefit. While the weather likely kept others away, we were delighted to have the waterfall pretty much to ourselves.
The waterfall is visible from the parking lot, and there’s a very short trail around/over the falls for closer looks. Thus, for nature lovers who don’t want to do a long hike, there’s an immediate payout when visiting Helen Hunt Falls. We thoroughly enjoyed the area, and I would agree with others and put in on my “Top Ten” list of things to do when in the area.
Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods
Whenever I mention Colorado Springs, the first things that people usually mention are “Garden of the Gods” or the “Broadmoor.” My old law firm had a firm retreat in the area many years ago where I got to experience both. I didn’t realize just how expensive the Broadmoor was at the time; nor did I appreciate the fact that visiting the Garden of the Gods is absolutely free.
Because the Garden of the Gods is such a tourist attraction, it is crowded. Very crowded. We were thinking of skipping it altogether because of that. We had some time on our last day in the area, on a Tuesday, and predicted that the crowds might be more tolerable. However, we made the mistake of visiting it around noon when the day’s crowd size seemed to peak.
Our last-minute excursion was not very well planned. Taking Garden Drive, we followed the signs to what seemed to be hundreds of people gathered around Balanced Rock. The signs then lead us to the Trading Post, which we mistook for the Visitor’s Center. When we finally got to the latter, we skipped all of the people-laden exhibits in favor of just landing on the Central Gardens Trail. There were a few bottlenecks of people, but overall, we were still able to enjoy most of the major rock formations in that section of the park. If I were going visit Colorado Springs again, I would do better research and go back to GOTG a couple of more times, but do so in the very early morning and hike one of the other numerous trails. I was surprised how much I liked our short time there.
Both Helen Hunt Falls and GOTG are difficult to describe in words. It’s best to just watch and enjoy… Even better, get out there and visit both!
