Weird & unusual things to do in Colorado Springs
The genuinely offbeat side of Colorado Springs: 97 hand-vetted hidden spots — oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, weird outdoor finds — built for an unusual date night, a weird afternoon, or showing a visitor a side of the city they'd never find alone. Like Celebration Metaphysical Center, The Fifty-Niner, The Enchanted Fox. Local secrets even locals miss — you didn't hear it from us.
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Celebration Metaphysical Center
A slightly-hidden metaphysical center on Garden of the Gods Rd where a local coven leaves business cards on t…
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The Fifty-Niner
You pass through aisles of boxed board games at The Dice Guys Game Store before slipping into a 20-person gol…
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The Enchanted Fox
Three women — a shamanic healer, an Indigenous tarot-deck artist, and an herbalist — ritually cleansed a 37-y…
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Hart & Horn
Angela Hartshorn — a 25-year practicing witch who has kept a studio at the Manitou Art Center for 14 years —…
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Merlin's Realm
Tucked below a Greek restaurant on Old Colorado City's main drag, Casey Bopp — "Merlin of Manitou" — has hand…
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Wise Roots Apothecary
Tucked inside a candlelit 1880s church on Canon Ave, this women-led herbalist shop crafts bespoke ceremonial…
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Yoga Studio Satya — Third Thursday Kirtan
Every third Thursday, the Satya Kirtan Band layers didgeridoo and handpan over harmonium and drums for a dona…
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Land of Ozz
A shadowy trove of rare vinyl, gothic threads, out-of-print books, and custom dark jewelry tucked into Ruxton…
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Cronk Art & Curiosities
A queer-owned downtown curiosity shop where ethically sourced butterfly and beetle taxidermy shares shelf spa…
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Shame & Regret
A gothic whiskey sanctuary tucked down a string-lit back alley between a falafel cafe and a comic book store,…
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Manitou Thursday Drum Circle
A free community drum circle takes over Manitou Memorial Park every Thursday in season — spare drums to borro…
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Aurathentic
A wellness boutique and creekside bar rolled into one: get your aura photographed, lie on a vibroacoustic bed…
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Singing Bowls of the Rockies
A former psychotherapy professor turned downtown sound-bath priestess runs 100+ crystal and Tibetan singing b…
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Rainbow Falls ("Graffiti Falls")
A 45-foot waterfall on Fountain Creek tucked under a road bridge off Serpentine Drive, its canyon walls coate…
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The Cauldron
A tiny self-described "mystical curiosity shop" on Ruxton Ave packed with oddities, talismans, and the kind o…
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Colorado Salt Cave Wellness Center
A glowing Himalayan salt cave in northwest Colorado Springs where halotherapy meets Ayurvedic oil rituals — S…
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Black Monarch Hotel
A gothic Victorian hotel in the near-ghost-town of Victor — former casino, brothel, and saloon — with seven r…
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Green Mountain Falls Skyspace
A permanent James Turrell "Skyspace" perched on Red Butte Mountain — a chamber with an oculus open to the sky…
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Rita the Rock Planter
A 21-foot troll built entirely from recycled wood by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, hidden up a short trail near…
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Old Homestead House Museum
An 1896 building in Cripple Creek that was once the gold camp's most exclusive brothel — run by legendary mad…
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Gold Camp Road Tunnels
A string of old railroad tunnels carved into the hills above Colorado Springs, several reputedly haunted — lo…
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Drekar Meadery
A Viking-themed mead hall in Knob Hill pouring old-world honey wines with names like Freya's Tears and Loki's…
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SunWater Spa — Cedar Tubs & Full-Moon Soak
A dozen outdoor cedar soaking tubs filled with mineral water from Manitou's 7 Minute Spring, all facing the m…
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Haunted Manitou Ghost Tour
A 75-minute lantern-lit walking tour through downtown Manitou's dim alleys and back corners, unspooling a mil…
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Leechpit Records & Vintage
A beloved 20-year crate-digger's den on the west side — vinyl across every genre, vintage clothing, old toys…
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Gratitude Zero Proof Bar
Colorado's most complete alcohol-free bar, tucked into The Sluice in Old Colorado City — exotic mocktails bui…
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Cherokee Ranch & Castle
A genuine 15th-century-style Scottish stone castle rising from the Colorado prairie, Cherokee Ranch & Castle…
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Wood Shark Trading Company
Founded in 2002 by Jim Corey and now run by his son Matt, Wood Shark Trading Company packs crystals, incense,…
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Scileppi's at the Old Stone Church
Scileppi's is a family-owned Italian restaurant operating since 2018 inside an 1888 rhyolite-stone Catholic c…
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B&B Cafe
The B&B Cafe has anchored downtown Castle Rock since 1946, and two bullet holes — one in the pressed-tin ceil…
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Provision
Provision is a genuine 1920s-speakeasy-style craft cocktail bar on Castle Rock's historic Wilcox Street block…
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Palmer Lake Star
Hand-built by volunteers in 1935 to lift Depression-era spirits, the Palmer Lake Star is a 457-foot-wide, fiv…
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Castlewood Canyon Dam Ruins
The crumbling concrete shell of the 1890 Castlewood Dam still stands in two massive broken halves, the gap be…
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Cantril School House
This 1897 Roman-arched stone schoolhouse — a National Register of Historic Places landmark purchased by the T…
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The Estemere
The Estemere is a genuine 1887 Queen Anne Victorian mansion — 18 rooms, seven fireplaces, a billiard room wit…
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A Sanctuary Center
A Sanctuary Center is a free, volunteer-maintained nonprofit sacred garden open sunrise to sunset daily, feat…
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Devil's Head Lookout
Devil's Head is Colorado's last staffed fire lookout — a working ranger mans the historic 1912 tower from rou…
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Shrunken Head Tiki Bar
Colorado Springs' first and only tiki bar hides underground on Tejon Street — you enter through an unmarked d…
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Hidden Peak Tiki Lounge
Somewhere under a historic feedstore in a 400-person mountain town at nearly 8,000 feet, you'll find a fully…
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Starr Kempf's Kinetic Sculptures
Tucked into a quiet residential block near the Broadmoor, a private yard holds four to five surviving steel w…
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Iron Springs Chateau Melodrama
Tucked up Ruxton Avenue in Manitou Springs, Iron Springs Chateau is a Victorian-era building literally constr…
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Winery at Holy Cross Abbey
A Benedictine monastery winery that exists entirely because a monk attended an exorcism and got smitten with…
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Silver Cliff Cemetery Ghost Lights
Tucked into the remote Wet Mountain Valley, Silver Cliff Cemetery has been quietly producing unexplained phen…
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Art in Isolation — Fremont Center for the Arts
Every August, a quiet nonprofit on Main Street in Cañon City hangs — and sells — original artwork made inside…
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Cripple Creek Wild Donkey Herd
When the gold mines shut down around 1901, the miners just... left. Their pack burros stayed, and the descend…
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Horsethief Falls Trail
Almost everyone driving Hwy 67 toward the Cripple Creek casinos blows right past the old railroad tunnel that…
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Pancake Rocks Trail
Everyone at this trailhead is going to Horsethief Falls — the easy mile-and-a-bit to a waterfall. Almost nobo…
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Heizer Trail to Cascade Mountain
Everyone in this town hikes Barr Trail, then complains about the crowds. Almost nobody walks the Heizer — a s…
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Paradise Cove / Guffey Gorge Swimming Hole
Most people blow right past the Guffey turnoff on the way to somewhere flashier, which is exactly why this wo…
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Red Rocks Trail Loop (Woodland Park)
Everyone within an hour of Colorado Springs has done Garden of the Gods. Almost nobody has done its quieter t…
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Petrified Forest Loop at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
Most people blow past Florissant on the way to a bigger peak, which is exactly why this works. Thirty-five mi…
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Paint Mines Interpretive Park (Hoodoos)
Most people picture hoodoos in Utah, not 45 minutes east of Colorado Springs on the high plains. But out past…
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Poplar Gulch Trail (from St. Elmo ghost town)
Almost everyone who reaches St. Elmo comes for the ghost town itself — the weathered 1880s storefronts, the c…
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Iscariot (Octo-Maid)
A 12-foot metal sculpture of a woman fused with an octopus-mermaid hybrid — gills, fins, and tentacles — perc…
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The Rabbit Hole
A gothic Alice-in-Wonderland speakeasy and restaurant built inside Colorado Springs' former city morgue and c…
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Michael Garman Museum - Magic Town
A 3,000-square-foot handcrafted miniature city by artist Michael Garman, packed with 400+ sculpted figures, d…
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District Eleven
Tell the host at T-Byrd's Tacos & Tequila you're here for district elleven and they'll walk you back through…
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Panthers Gate Lil Witch University & Metaphysical Store
An esoteric mystery school and metaphysical shop hybrid offering intuitive readings, energy healing, and stru…
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May Natural History Museum & Herkimer the Giant Beetle
A 16-foot bronze Hercules beetle guards a retro 1950s roadside museum holding one of the world's largest priv…
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Penny Arcade
A working open-air arcade with 400+ coin-operated machines spanning more than a century — antique fortune tel…
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Bishop Castle
An enormous castle built entirely by hand over 50+ years by one man, Jim Bishop — towers, a fire-breathing dr…
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Elev8 Premier Glass Studio
Elev8 is a working borosilicate glass studio founded in 2004, not a casual paint-and-sip spot — it runs in pr…
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Kilroy's Workshop
Kilroy's is an 11,000-square-foot blacksmithing and welding trade school packed with coal and gas forges, pow…
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22nd Street Clay
A neighborhood pottery studio on the Westside that leans personal — alongside multi-week classes, they offer…
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The Glass Collective by Sassy Glassy
Opened May 2025 specifically to keep stained glass, mosaic, and glass fusing alive in Colorado Springs, the G…
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Nomad Neon
Neon bending is one of the rarest hands-on crafts you can actually try as a beginner, and Nomad Neon teaches…
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The Charnel Box
This is full-on small-mammal taxidermy taught in an intimate home studio south of downtown. The five-hour Fou…
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Novis Mortem Collective (classes by The Terrorium Shop)
A downtown oddities gallery on Tejon Street that runs hands-on workshops in its curiosity-shop setting: insec…
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MatchBox Candle Co.
A working candle company in Old Colorado City that lets you pour your own custom candles with a professionall…
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Meraki Springs
A maker studio in Old Colorado City with 30-plus rotating hands-on workshops, from candle and soap making to…
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Supernova Bar and Arcade
Downtown's original arcade bar packs wall-to-wall classic cabinets and a handful of pinball machines around a…
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The Crooked Cue
A polished downtown pool-and-pinball lounge with 18 professional Diamond Pro-Am tables — racked in the lounge…
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Colorado Pinball Pub
A pinball-and-arcade pub on Highway 105 with around a dozen machines that rotate often, blending modern Stern…
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The Control Room
An east-side arcade bar that pairs retro cabinets and pinball with a kitchen turning out pizza, burgers, and…
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Escaped In Time
A veteran-owned, family-run escape room shop with custom-built, non-franchise rooms and puzzles you won't fin…
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Star Party at Garden of the Gods
After the famous red rocks empty out for the day, the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society wheels personal t…
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Florissant Fossil Beds Night Sky Program
Certified an International Dark Sky Park in 2021, this high-meadow monument an hour west of the Springs goes…
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Rocky Mountain Star Stare (Starry Meadows)
Once a year the astronomical society throws open its private 35-acre observing site, Starry Meadows, for a mu…
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Mueller State Park Star Party
Tucked in the forested high country behind Pikes Peak, Mueller is dark enough to show the Milky Way with the…
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Eleven Mile State Park (Dark Sky stargazing & reservoir)
Eleven Mile is one of a dozen Colorado state parks tapped for DarkSky Colorado certification, the program wor…
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U.S. Air Force Academy Planetarium
The Academy's planetarium runs full-dome shows under 8K projection with surround sound, including live night-…
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Haunted Lantern Tour at Cave of the Winds
A 90-minute walk through the Manitou Grand Caverns lit only by a hand-carried flame lantern, down narrow tunn…
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Comanche Drive-In Theatre
At 8,000 feet in the Arkansas Valley, the Comanche bills itself as the highest-elevation drive-in theater in…
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Mesa Drive-In Theatre
The Mesa is a two-screen drive-in with digital projection, celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2026, making i…
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Candlelight Concerts at First United Methodist Church
Fever's Candlelight series turns the downtown First United Methodist Church sanctuary into a space lit by tho…
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Water Lantern Festival at Prospect Lake
Each summer, hundreds of people gather at Prospect Lake to decorate floating paper lanterns with an LED candl…
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Pikes Peak Phantom Ghost Tour
This nightly, year-round walking ghost tour leads small groups through downtown Colorado Springs after dark,…
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Red Mountain
Everyone in Manitou grinds up the famous Incline — almost no one climbs the mountain right across the canyon,…
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Miramont Castle
A French priest named Jean-Baptiste Francolon built this 1895 mountainside mansion and apparently couldn't pi…
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Crystal Valley Cemetery
Manitou's principal graveyard since 1882, terraced up a hillside and on the National Register — and the place…
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Old Colorado City History Center
Old Colorado City was a rowdy 1859 gold-rush town that predated Colorado Springs — and when prim, dry Colorad…
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Van Briggle Memorial Pottery Building
Most people drive past this 1907 building near Monument Valley Park without realizing they're looking at one…
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Stratton's Independence Mine and Mill
Staked on July 4, 1891, by Winfield Scott Stratton, this historic gold mine became one of the most lucrative…
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Eureka Tunnel Mine
Located in the St. Peter's Dome mining district of the Pike National Forest, the Eureka Tunnel is a historic,…
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Black Canyon Mine
Shuttered in 2015, the Black Canyon Mine (also known as the Snyder Quarry) is a historic limestone quarry loc…
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Johnny Mine
Located in the rugged Rock Creek Canyon south of Colorado Springs, the Johnny Mine is a historic, defunct min…
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American Eagles Mine
Originally situated on Bull Hill at an elevation of 10,750 feet, the American Eagles Mine was the highest und…
Unusual things to do in Colorado Springs — FAQ
What are some unusual things to do in Colorado Springs?
97 hand-vetted weird spots — like Celebration Metaphysical Center, The Fifty-Niner, The Enchanted Fox — plus oddity shops, hidden bars, haunted history, sound baths, and offbeat outdoor finds. Every one is real and sourced, not a top-ten landmark.
Where can you go for a weird date night in Colorado Springs?
Try Celebration Metaphysical Center, The Fifty-Niner, The Enchanted Fox — strange-but-real spots that make a memorable date. Filter by neighborhood, vibe, or how far you'll drive: in town, nearby, or a day trip.
What's a weird thing to do in Colorado Springs tonight or this weekend?
For tonight, filter to "in town" and low-key picks; for the weekend, the day-trip ring opens up genuinely strange spots a short drive out. Start with Celebration Metaphysical Center, The Fifty-Niner, The Enchanted Fox — and sort by how far you're willing to go.
Are there free or cheap weird things to do in Colorado Springs?
Yes — 66 Colorado Springs spots are free or low-cost, like The Enchanted Fox, Hart & Horn, Merlin's Realm. Roadside oddities, public art, and outdoor curiosities usually cost nothing.
How is this different from the usual Colorado Springs tourist lists?
We skip the landmarks everyone knows. An agentic research system digs up the genuinely hidden, offbeat spots — the local secrets even locals miss — and verifies each against real sources before it makes the list.