Three More Fun Things To Do In Colorado, With or Without Kids

I love living in Colorado - there are always fun and unique things to be discovered around the next bend along with the natural beauty, of course. For the last few years, Mr UR has taken me on a surprise birthday weekend trip to visit some places we haven't been before. So here are three places we hit up  that are fun to visit with or without kids:

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Located west of Colorado Springs, this national monument holds one of the richest fossil deposits in the world including petrified Sequoia trees that are up to 14 feet wide. It's possible that people have been in this area for 10,000 years including prehistoric Paleo-Indians, the Ute and Apache people and then on to the pioneers. What began as a massive flow of ash and hot gasses flowing through the valley, right after the Rocky Mountains formed, then led to glaciers and mammoths. It was a long time until white settlers arrived, even though native tribes have been here for thousands of years, and the town of Florissant was settled. Then the scientists started arriving after hearing about the many fossil wonders here. The railway comes and brings the tourists who collect fossils and stay at the Florissant resort. Finally it is made into a national monument in 1969 to preserve this land and it's abundance of fossils for future generations.

As always, I suggest starting at the Visitor Center to get the lay of the land. One of the things to do here is to take a self guided hike on one of the loops - Ponderosa, Petrified Forest or Geologic. That's what we chose to do and had a very nice walk - a one mile easy loop with mountain scenery and a view of the petrified tree stumps. And this walk would be very kid friendly - in fact, there were quite a few families there when we were. 

This national monument is good for a half day visit - unless you want to do some longer hikes as there are 14 miles of scenic trails. We spent a few hours here learning about the land, seeing the petrified tree stumps and walking the scenic loop.

St. Elmo's Ghost Town

Twenty miles southwest of Buena Vista lies St. Elmo's Ghost Town. Considered one of the best preserved and most accessible mining ghost towns in the west, you can supposedly see 43 original 1880's structures (I feel like we saw a lot less but we didn't do a deep dive and stuck to the main streets) Founded as a gold and silver mining town in the 1880's, it once had 2000 residents with hotels, saloons and even a newspaper. It eventually went bust when the railroad stopped running in 1922 limiting access to the town from anywhere else.

Besides the history, it is also a popular ATV and off road vehicle starting point. And if you're really into chipmunks - and feeding them - this is your spot as they are everywhere here.

The drive to get there started out paved and then turned into dirt with lots of ATV's on trailers on the side of the road and scenic mountain views along the canyon. There is plenty of parking in town and  then you can just walk the town and see the old buildings including the old schoolhouse, visit the general store - which is still open - and take in the fresh mountain air. Just be prepared that it is a dirt road to get there and the only place to buy anything is at the general store - it is a ghost town after all.

 

The Broadmoor Seven Falls

Billed as Colorado's most majestic waterfall, Seven Falls is the only waterfall in Colorado on National Geographic's list of International Waterfalls. It's also been called "The Grandest Mile of Scenery in Colorado." So that's saying something! 

The waterfall is actually in a "walking park" which runs through South Cheyenne Canyon and includes Restaurant 1858. The walk to get to the falls is .8 miles on a paved path with plenty of scenery along the way. But your journey actually starts by purchasing tickets for park entry - adults start at $21with timed entry. There is no parking at the park and you must park at The Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs where you are transported by a complimentary shuttle bus. Once you arrive you can start your walk which ends at the falls. 

There are 224 steps to the top of the Main Falls and the only way you can get to the top is to climb those steps. (There is another viewing platform called Eagles Nest that is reached by 185 steps or an elevator) Once at the top there is a small spot to sit and rest or you can hike the nature trails. The Broadmoor (that owns the park) says to plan to stay 2 to 2 1/2 hours. 

Another thing you can do is to dine at Restaurant 1858. This restaurant, at the base of the falls, has a main dining room and an outdoor patio. Reservations are required - as are a ticket purchased for park entry - and you can dine on such entrees as bison bistro steak, wild boar green chili, and local rainbow trout. We arrived between lunch and dinner hours and asked to just have a drink at the bar - which they let us do. 

Broadmoor Outfitters offers Soaring Adventures, a zip line excursion which includes entry to the park. The ziplines range from 250 feet to 1800 feet and you can also rappel the canyon. All of this for an added cost, of course.

The zipline stand

Hard to see but there's a zipliner up there!

How about you? What's a unique thing you've seen or done in Colorado?