Three Colorado Springs Stops We Explored With Our Dogs

Hey there Reader,

When we drove from Alabama to Grand Teton National Park this summer, Colorado Springs was our first major stop. We hadn't been back in Colorado since our 2022 honeymoon road trip to Yosemite.

Our dogs didn't join for that one, and we really only had time to climb the 2,744 stairs of the Manitou Incline and the dunes at Great Sand Dunes NP.

Colorado Springs has some amazing outdoor adventures, and Garden of the Gods was one we'd been wanting to visit for years.

This time, our two pups, Toby and Lily, were along for the ride, so finding dog-friendly adventures was important to us. We ended up spending two days exploring three very different places around Colorado Springs.

Exploring the Red Rocks at Garden of the Gods

Woman walking a small white dog along a dirt trail surrounded by green brush and red rock formations at Garden of the Gods.

Garden of the Gods had been on our list for years, and the rock formations were much larger than I expected. They also weren't quite as saturated red as some of the photos I'd seen online. We spent a little over two hours walking the paths, taking pictures and letting Toby and Lily explore.

I was also surprised by how close the park is to downtown and how many of the main walking paths are paved. I thought we'd find mostly dirt trails, but that wasn't the case.

Some people want to see every famous rock formation during their visit, but that wasn't our priority. We just had a good, casual afternoon visit with our pups.

Take a Walk Through the Garden of the Gods

Climbing 224 Stairs Alongside Seven Falls

The Mountain Elevator entrance and the stairs leading up to Eagle's Nest at Seven Falls.

We woke up early the following morning and drove to Seven Falls. The reservation instructions had us park near the Norris Penrose Event Center, where a shuttle picked us up and drove us to the actual entrance.

Seven Falls had been on our bucket list after seeing pictures of its seven distinct waterfalls on social media and we also wanted to climb the stairs right alongside the falls.

This was a fun visit that brought us further into the Colorado mountains and gave us another stair challenge. The walk up the canyon to the falls was gorgeous and the view of the falls from Eagle's Nest was stunning.

We did have to change our original plans a little, though. We wanted to bring our dogs up the stairs alongside the falls, but the stairs were wet, and the gaps between them made us worry that one of our dogs could slip through.

That wouldn't be fun on vacation! This might not be as much of an issue with larger dogs, but we weren't comfortable taking the risk with ours.

So Minerva and I took turns climbing the stairs while the other kept the pups company at the bottom of the falls.

Climb the 224 Stairs Alongside Seven Falls

Hail at Helen Hunt Falls

Scenic view of Helen Hunt Falls cascading over rocks with a pedestrian footbridge and pine trees under a partly cloudy sky in Colorado Springs.

After our adventure at Seven Falls, we weren't ready to head back to our Airbnb. So we decided to drive a little farther into the mountains to check out Helen Hunt Falls. It's free to visit, the waterfall is right next to the parking lot and there's a trail that continues farther into the mountains.

We sat under the visitor center's overhang watching hummingbirds at the feeders when it started to rain. Then it turned to hail, and I suddenly remembered our Subaru Forester was sitting out in the parking lot with a moonroof.

I ended up running back to the car to cover the roof with a blanket. Not exactly how I expected that afternoon to go!

Visit Helen Hunt Falls

Planning a Colorado Springs Visit?

Most of our road trips take us from Alabama to somewhere in the western US, so we try to make the most of the places we stop along the way. We only had two days to explore Colorado Springs on our way to Grand Teton National Park, but we managed to fit in three stops that Toby and Lily could enjoy with us.