Weird day trips from Colorado Springs

The strangest Colorado Springs finds are often a short drive out. These 23 day trips — Black Monarch Hotel, Green Mountain Falls Skyspace, Rita the Rock Planter and more — are each hand-vetted and sourced: ghost towns, hot-spring soaks, roadside oddities, and odd small-town museums worth the gas. A weird day trip is its own kind of date.

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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… Victor (old gold-mining town)
Green Mountain Falls Skyspace A permanent James Turrell "Skyspace" perched on Red Butte Mountain — a chamber with an oculus open to the sky… Green Mountain Falls
Rita the Rock Planter A 21-foot troll built entirely from recycled wood by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, hidden up a short trail near… Victor
Old Homestead House Museum An 1896 building in Cripple Creek that was once the gold camp's most exclusive brothel — run by legendary mad… Cripple Creek
Gold Camp Road Tunnels A string of old railroad tunnels carved into the hills above Colorado Springs, several reputedly haunted — lo… North Cheyenne Cañon / Bear Creek
Cherokee Ranch & Castle A genuine 15th-century-style Scottish stone castle rising from the Colorado prairie, Cherokee Ranch & Castle… Sedalia
Wood Shark Trading Company Founded in 2002 by Jim Corey and now run by his son Matt, Wood Shark Trading Company packs crystals, incense,… Castle Rock
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… Castle Rock
B&B Cafe The B&B Cafe has anchored downtown Castle Rock since 1946, and two bullet holes — one in the pressed-tin ceil… Castle Rock
Provision Provision is a genuine 1920s-speakeasy-style craft cocktail bar on Castle Rock's historic Wilcox Street block… Castle Rock
Castlewood Canyon Dam Ruins The crumbling concrete shell of the 1890 Castlewood Dam still stands in two massive broken halves, the gap be… Franktown
Cantril School House This 1897 Roman-arched stone schoolhouse — a National Register of Historic Places landmark purchased by the T… Castle Rock
A Sanctuary Center A Sanctuary Center is a free, volunteer-maintained nonprofit sacred garden open sunrise to sunset daily, feat… Sedalia
Devil's Head Lookout Devil's Head is Colorado's last staffed fire lookout — a working ranger mans the historic 1912 tower from rou… Sedalia
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… Westcliffe
Winery at Holy Cross Abbey A Benedictine monastery winery that exists entirely because a monk attended an exorcism and got smitten with… Cañon City
Silver Cliff Cemetery Ghost Lights Tucked into the remote Wet Mountain Valley, Silver Cliff Cemetery has been quietly producing unexplained phen… Westcliffe / Silver Cliff
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… Cañon City
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… Guffey / Cripple Creek area (south of Divide), Colorado
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… Florissant (northwest of Cripple Creek)
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… Calhan (45 min east of Colorado Springs)
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… St. Elmo / Chalk Creek
Bishop Castle An enormous castle built entirely by hand over 50+ years by one man, Jim Bishop — towers, a fire-breathing dr… Rye (south of Colorado Springs)