Scavenger Hunt in Colorado Springs: Mountains, History, and a City Built for Exploration
Colorado Springs sits at the foot of Pikes Peak, the 14,115-foot summit that inspired Katherine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful" in 1893, and the mountain backdrop is visible from virtually every street in the city. The combination of extraordinary natural scenery and a surprisingly rich urban core (the historic downtown, the Garden of the Gods red rock formations, and the US Air Force Academy all within 20 minutes of the city center) makes Colorado Springs one of the most compelling mid-size cities in the Mountain West for active exploration.
A city scavenger hunt in Colorado Springs works on two levels: the downtown historic district has the architectural and cultural depth for genuine urban discovery, and the surrounding landscape offers the kind of visual context that makes the city's story comprehensible.
Best Neighborhoods for a Colorado Springs Scavenger Hunt
Old Colorado City, the original Victorian-era commercial district west of downtown on Colorado Avenue, which predates Colorado Springs' 1871 founding and was the territorial capital of Colorado for a brief period, has the late 19th-century commercial buildings, the independent art galleries, the craft breweries, and the general character of a neighborhood that has maintained its distinct identity relative to the main city. The covered walkways, the brick streets, and the mountain backdrop at the west end of Colorado Avenue make Old Colorado City one of the most pleasant walking environments in the city.
Downtown Tejon Street, the main commercial corridor of central Colorado Springs, with the Acacia Park central green, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (one of the finest regional art museums in the Mountain West, with an extraordinary collection of Southwest art), and the mix of Victorian and early 20th-century commercial buildings, is the formal urban core for a downtown scavenger hunt.
The Garden of the Gods, strictly speaking not a neighborhood but an extraordinary geological formation within the city limits (the only such formation in the country in a major city), has the 300-foot red sandstone formations against the Pikes Peak backdrop that make Colorado Springs visually unlike any other American city. Free to enter; the visitor center is excellent.
What a Colorado Springs Scavenger Hunt Reveals
The Questo city quest in Colorado Springs covers the city's unusual founding, General William Jackson Palmer created Colorado Springs as a planned resort community in 1871, specifically designed to attract wealthy Eastern and British settlers who were drawn by the altitude, the mineral springs, and the landscape, and the Gilded Age tourist economy that it created. The Broadmoor Hotel (opened 1918, the most persistently luxurious resort hotel in the Mountain West) and the Antlers Hotel (the third Antlers, rebuilt in 1901) are the surviving architecture of this era.
The Colorado Springs area has the highest concentration of military installations of any metro area in the United States, NORAD, the US Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, and Schriever Space Force Base are all in or adjacent to the city, which gives the city a distinctive military culture visible throughout the downtown area.
Colorado Springs Scavenger Hunt Tips
The Pikes Peak Cog Railway (the highest cog railroad in the world, running from Manitou Springs to the Pikes Peak summit at 14,115 feet) is one of the most dramatic train experiences in North America and is worth building into any Colorado Springs visit, book well in advance, especially in summer. Manitou Springs, the Victorian spa town at the foot of Pikes Peak immediately west of Colorado Springs, is worth a morning visit: the mineral springs (free to taste from public fountains throughout the town), the penny arcades, and the cliff dwellings make it one of the most distinctive small towns in Colorado. The Colorado Springs food scene has improved significantly in recent years, Phantom Canyon Brewing in the downtown historic Hartman Building is the most atmospheric post-quest option.