Colorado Springs Historical Sites: Free, Paid, and Worth It
🏔️ Get the free Colorado Springs Local Cheat Sheet
A 20-year local’s shortlist, best taco, best hike, the Garden of the Gods timing trick, and more. Plus a short weekly email on what’s happening around town. Free.
Quick answer
Most of the best history here is free: the Pioneers Museum, Old Colorado City History Center, Garden of the Gods visitor center, and Penrose Heritage Museum don’t charge admission, and Rock Ledge Ranch is free outside its summer living-history days. Worth paying for: Glen Eyrie (book ahead), Miramont Castle, the Cog Railway. Closed or different right now: the Air Force Academy’s Cadet Chapel until 2028, the Peterson Air & Space Museum for construction this fall, and Rock Ledge’s buildings outside summer. 2026 is also Colorado’s 150th year of statehood, and the Pioneers Museum has built programming around it.
I’ve lived on the west side more than 20 years. Below I say plainly which places I know firsthand and which facts come from each site’s own page.
Cost, hours, and booking at a glance
| Site | Era | Cost | Off-season hours | Book ahead? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneers Museum | 1903 courthouse | Free | Tue–Sat 10–5 | No |
| Old Colorado City History Center | Founded 1859 | Free | Tue–Sat 11–2 | No |
| Garden of the Gods Visitor Center | n/a | Free | 9–5 daily | No |
| Rock Ledge Ranch | 1800s–1900s farm | Free grounds, $8 when programs run | Grounds dawn–dusk; buildings early June–mid Aug only | No for grounds |
| Glen Eyrie Castle | Palmer’s 1871 estate | $14 | Tours Mon–Sat noon & 2, Sun 2 | Yes |
| McAllister House | Built 1873 | $10 | Thu–Sat 10:30/12:30/2:30, closed Jan | Recommended |
| Miramont Castle | Built 1895–97 | $15 | Tue–Sun 10–3:30 | No |
| Manitou Cliff Dwellings | Built early 1900s | $12.75 + tax | Roughly 9–4/5, varies by month | No |
| Pikes Peak Cog Railway | Running since 1891 | $67 reserved, $86 walk-up | Year-round | Yes |
| Penrose Heritage Museum | n/a | Free | Tue–Sat 9–noon & 1–4 | No |
| USAFA Hosmer Visitor Center | n/a | Free | Daily 9–5 | No |
| Western Museum of Mining & Industry | Mid-1890s farmhouse | $14 | Mon–Sat 9–4, tours 10 & 1 | No |
How I put this together
Hours and prices come straight off each site’s own page, linked throughout. History dates come from those pages or from Wikipedia, named where I use it. What I describe as mine, Rock Ledge Ranch, the Garden of the Gods visitor center, the Broadmoor grounds, the Cog Railway, and Jack Quinn’s, is from actually going there over 20-plus years on the west side. The rest, Glen Eyrie, Miramont, the Cliff Dwellings, McAllister House, the Pioneers Museum, WMMI, Ghost Town, Penrose Heritage, and the Academy sites, I haven’t personally toured; those details are straight off each site’s own page or the named source next to them, not my experience. Hours shift by season, and Glen Eyrie and the Cog both sell out, so check before you drive over.
Closed or different right now
- USAFA Cadet Chapel: closed for repairs until 2028. Use the new Hosmer Visitor Center instead.
- Peterson Air & Space Museum: closed for construction this fall, tentatively back Nov. 4; needs a base pass arranged ahead.
- Rock Ledge Ranch: buildings and living history run summer only; grounds free and open all year.
- McAllister House: closed in January.
- Glen Eyrie: castle is mid-upgrade; call ahead if a specific room matters to you.
Some links below go to Booking.com or GetYourGuide, and I may earn a small commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you.
West side (my side of town)
Rock Ledge Ranch is on my side of town, and it’s the one I’d send you to first: a historical home and buildings, a working farm, a blacksmith at the forge, a teepee set up, a little pond to walk around. That’s the summer living-history program, early June to mid-August. Outside those months the buildings close but the grounds stay free, dawn to dusk, with a self-guided map at the restrooms. Use the Pike Drive/Chambers Way gate off-season; the main gate only opens during programs.
The Garden of the Gods visitor center is free, and it’s one of the best deals in town: everything in the park is free except food and extras like e-bike rentals and horseback rides. I’ve done the e-bike, not the horses. Go early morning or on a weekday; the main loop jams up on summer weekends.
Glen Eyrie was General Palmer’s estate, the man who founded Colorado Springs in 1871. The guided castle tour runs about 90 minutes, $14, Monday through Saturday at noon and 2, Sunday at 2, and you need a reservation; tours for the next month open on the 1st. The castle is mid-upgrade right now, so call ahead if a particular room matters to you.
Old Colorado City was founded in 1859 in the Pikes Peak gold rush and was briefly the territorial capital. The history center’s gallery is free, and the historic commercial district has been on the National Register since 1982.
Downtown
The Pioneers Museum is free, inside the 1903 El Paso County Courthouse. 2026 marks 150 years of Colorado statehood, and the museum built year-long programming around it, including a 90-minute guided downtown walking tour.
A few blocks over, the McAllister House is one of the oldest homes in the city, built 1873. Guided-tour only, Thursday through Saturday at 10:30, 12:30, and 2:30 off-season, closed all of January.
Colorado Creative Tours runs a two-hour walk from the Antlers Hotel lobby to Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub, which I recommend on its own: an Irish pub setting with good beer and good burgers.
South
The Broadmoor opened in 1918 under Spencer Penrose. My wife and I walk the grounds fairly often without staying there: a big lake, flower beds, a hallway hung with local artwork and photos of famous guests over the decades. The lake used to freeze and we’d skate on it; the hotel has real figure-skating history. You don’t need a room to walk the grounds, and I’d make time for it.
Right next door, the Penrose Heritage Museum is free and holds the family’s 30 horse-drawn carriages along with race cars from the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, which started in 1916.
Manitou
Miramont Castle was built 1895 to 1897 for a French priest, Jean-Baptiste Francolon, and mixes several architectural styles under one roof. Admission $15, off-season hours Tuesday through Sunday 10 to 3:30.
Manitou Cliff Dwellings gets confused with the real thing, so here’s the honest version. The stonework is old and genuine, but it was taken from a collapsed Ancestral Puebloan site near Cortez, shipped here by rail, and rebuilt as a tourist attraction that opened in 1907. Ancestral Puebloans never lived around Manitou; for the real thing, Mesa Verde is where you go. Knowing what you’re looking at, it’s fine as a stop. It just isn’t what the name implies.
The Cog Railway has run since 1891 and runs all winter, which surprises people; the view from the 14,000-foot summit is incredible. Reserved seats start at $67 online, walk-up starts at $86, round trip about 3 hours. Since it sells out on good days, check current availability here.
North
For Air Force Academy history without touring the base, the new Hosmer Visitor Center sits just outside the North Gate off I-25 exit 156, no base entry required, daily 9 to 5. The Cadet Chapel is closed for repairs until 2028.
The Peterson Air & Space Museum, Colorado’s oldest aviation museum, is closed for construction this fall, tentatively back Nov. 4; it’s on Peterson Space Force Base, so non-DoD visitors need a base pass arranged ahead.
Western Museum of Mining & Industry: $14, Monday through Saturday 9 to 4, tours at 10 and 1, with the mid-1890s Reynolds farmhouse on the grounds. With kids and a few minutes, the Ghost Town Museum, off Highway 24 at 21st Street, is a quick, cheap stop: $9.50, daily 10 to 5, September through May.
A one-day history route
One day: start downtown, Pioneers Museum at 10, lunch at Jack Quinn’s, then west side for the Garden of the Gods visitor center and a walk around Rock Ledge Ranch’s grounds. Booked Glen Eyrie? Take the 2 p.m. tour. Give Manitou and the Cog their own day; pair Miramont with the Cliff Dwellings, and ride the Cog whenever the weather’s clearest, since it runs all winter anyway. For timing around crowds and weather, see our best time to visit Colorado Springs guide.
Where to stay for a history weekend
Downtown: walking distance to the Pioneers Museum, McAllister House, and the walking tour. Manitou: next to Miramont, the Cliff Dwellings, and the Cog depot.
More Springs guides
- Garden of the Gods: complete guide to parking, trails, and timing
- Old Colorado City: shops, food, and art on the west side
- Manitou Springs: a local’s visitor guide
- Pikes Peak: drive it, hike it, or take the train
- 50 free and budget-friendly things to do in Colorado Springs
Author: Dominic