Cave of the Winds

Done early with work and rocked on up here — it’s a steep and windy road up with some scary hairpin turns, so drive carefully — there aren’t any guard rails! Also the drive up has these deer sculptures and at a distance they looked like the real thing, so nice visual trickery going on there :)
Once we got to the welcome center, could only go on one tour (the Discovery Tour cost $ 20, they don’t accept Amex!!) and so we had to wait for around 20 – 25 mins until Tour time was up.
The first thing you do when you go in is get a group photo taken with some great stalagmites in the background (these are of course available to buy later!) Then the tour starts with the history of the discovery of the cave and our guide did a great job pointing out the various special features that this cave has.
It’s about a half mile walk in the caves and around 200 steps so the whole tour is between 45 mins to an hour to check it all out. Some of the steps are especially steep but the highlight for me was when at one point the guide turned off the lights and we got to experience how dark it would have been for early cave explorers using only candlelight and flame. One other thing that was really cool is that they still have an original Edison bulb (in working order!!) from when the cave system was first rigged up for electricity back in ¹⁹⁰⁷⁄₁₉₀₈.
Overall it was a great tour, however the cost I thought was a bit excessive, so probably will not return for a repeat visit.

Chris O. gives awesome tours and has the best jokes. He also taught us that the most important cave animal is a duck.

OMG! I had so much fun in here! We went to the lantern tour. Which last a little longer than the other one. You go to one part of the cave which doesn’t have electricity and is very well preserved.
The tour girl tell the story of the first person who discovered the cave (George Snider), and tries to scare you with ghost/​spirit stories. Well, she was very successful! I was really scare by the end of the tour. I almost poop my pants at some point.
To get to the cave you need to go through narrow passage and dock in some points. So if you are not fit or if you are claustrophobic, don’t even think about it!
It was a really cool experience and I would recommend it if you are in the area.

I’ve been here twice now. Once when my husband just to check it out. And again the other week when our friends with their children were in town. Normally, when we have out of town guests, we go on hikes or do a bevy of outdoor activities. However, this day it was cloudy (very limited visibility) and rainy all day. This was a great option for the day. We hit the caves (minus the awesome views), then went to the Manitou penny arcades and Rainbow Falls. Overall, a decent day of activities despite the bad weather.
Prices are steep ($ 20/​12+ yrs, $ 12÷6−12 yrs, free/​5 yrs or younger), but they offer a good military discount ($ 16/​12+ yrs, $ 10÷6−12 yrs, free/​5 yrs or younger).
The tour is about 30 – 45 minutes, I think. It’s neat, if you’ve never been in a cave before but it’s no Luray Caverns or Crystal Caves, but it has it’s own interesting facets. And the tour guides are usually pretty good. My friends’ son was really scared of the cave darkness (thanks to my husband scaring him), but we got him a head lantern and the tour guide was so good with getting him to not be scared. He even let him blow out the candle during the part of the tour we got to experience the cave darkness. There were several other children of all ages, too.
Be warned: There are some areas that are going to be a tight squeeze for some. And you do have to bend down in some area where the passage height is ~4 feet or so. And inside the cave it’s about ~50 degrees on a 70 degree day. Also, wear shoes with good traction. There are some slippery areas, but there are handrails throughout.
Overall, it’s something I’d take out of towners or hit up with kids. But that’s it.
The Manitou Cliff Dwellings site is right around the corner. If the day is nice, you could conceivably visit both in the same day.

God’s country right here! Beautiful scenery and when you go into the cave, it is such an awesome experience seeing everything! You of course learn a few things too along the way! I was traveling alone and really enjoyed this tour!

I really want to give this 3.5 stars, but not because the place isn’t great — more of my own personal experience.
First of all, I’ve been in the Louray Caverns and they are truly spectacular. This would have been a cool «first cave» but not a followup act. Just a heads up if you’ve been in caves before.
Our tour guide was very young, and very hard to understand. He had some corny, scripted jokes that emitted a few «ha“s out of the folks on the tour, but that’s about it.
The site itself had TONS to do. Scary looking rides and such. I’m afraid of heights (and come to think of it, small spaces) so this wasn’t my cup of tea overall. Just an FYI if that’s you as well. The older kids I was with (three 6-​year olds, one 7 year old, and one 10 year old) absolutely loved it, so I highly recommend it for elementary age kids. They thought it was creepy and cool.
***We brought along two 1-​year olds, and it was a straight up nightmare. We didn’t think it would be so bad, since they do not have an age restriction, but once you get in you cannot use strollers or carry packs for small children, so we had to carry them through the cave and it was basically a huge mistake. Ducking through narrow tunnels with a squirmy toddler was an experience I never want to have again. My own mistake, not the cave’s though. Just a heads up for other visitors.

Totally amazing! Extremely clean and well organized and designed! Truly a GREAT time for the whole family! Employees are kind and courteous and the cave tour was really interesting and enjoyable! We thought we’d stop in for maybe an hour, but ended up spending half the day here. Can’t say enough about this place… totally amazing!

A 45 minute tour of a pretty awesome cave! My wife and I like geology so this was a fun stop on our trip through Colorado.
The low points:
1. They don’t know what time their tours start. We bought tickets and the guy «guessed» literally 45 minutes. Took 75 minutes to get in the tour.
2. Too commercialized for me, they have a lot of things for kids to do but ask a question on the tour outside of the script and they don’t know.
3. Not very clean so I don’t trust the rides that go over a canyon. Maybe send a friend you don’t like on one the rides.
We took the Discovery tour and j wouldn’t do the longer tour after taking this one. If you are going just to see the cave, you will enjoy that part like we did.

Our guide tour person was great and knowledgeable about the caves. But if it wasn’t for the family wanting to go. I don’t think I would ever go. But I had a great time.

The cave tour was great. My family and I had a good time. We took the Discovery Tour and my two little boys, age 4 and 6 really enjoyed it. Like a lot of the posts says, there were a lot of corny jokes but the tour guide was really patient and knowledgeable.
The one downside was the girl working at the café. She was a world class B*TCH. Apparently I was wearing a shirt that said, «Treat me like you’re above me.»
RUDE RUDE RUDE to both me and my wife on separate occasions. I’ll bring my own snacks next time.

Meh. SO kitschy. I should have looked at reviews before I went. It would be a great stop-​off for a family road trip, but not so good for some 20-​somethings from Colorado. It was also SUPER overpriced for what I felt like I got from the tour.
Lots of corny jokes, which was fine, but idk. I just felt myself looking at my watch wondering when we could do something better. It would be neat if they oriented it a bit more for adults and children alike.

I remember coming here as a kid and that’s all I member about it. Going though the cave as an adult it was like I had never been here before. The cave itself is very different from many of the others that we’ve toured recently (Kartchner Caverns, Carlsbad Caverns and Glenwood Springs). It is tighter pathways and a shorter tour but it is still a very interesting and exciting tour. Our guide this round was a little over the top but they get five stars for the natural beauty of the cave and the overall excitement from the tour.

I was wary to spend $ 30 per person for the tour and I should have gone with my gut. Definitely not worth the money.
Yes, the caves and the history are cool, but this is highway/​tourist robbery (and I am a local!) For $ 20 you get the Discovery Tour for an hour in the lit part of the caves and for $ 30 you get 90 minutes for the lantern tour and then 30 minutes in the lit part of the caves (or so they told us).
For the first hour, we had an adventure using lanterns made from oil lamps inside a tin bucket — cool but the light was so faint it was hard to see much of anything. I get the point is that you are supposed to be pretending you are back in the 1800s, but the guide’s lantern was much brighter, so I know it’s possible. I was difficult to see much of anything, even when you held your lanterns right next to the cave walls.
The tour had interesting stories about the founders and owners of the caves, what they used to use them for and what they wanted to use them for (I won’t give you any spoilers in case you go on the tour). There were even a few ghost stories. Our guide (Chris, I believe) had a great voice for story telling but was very blah when he wan’t giving his normal pre-​rehearsed stories.
Overall the lantern tour part was interesting but left much to be desired… and SEEN! And when the guide tried to show us the cool part of how the cave walls, in a particular section, glowed purple with the shining of a flashlight… his flashlight was dead. Very disappointing.
Once we finished the lantern tour, I was looking forward to being able to take some pictures in the lit areas of the cave. This was supposed to last 30 minutes but we practically were forced to run through this section and it only was about 10 minutes, leaving us 20 minutes short of the promised 90 minutes. Rushed out to be haggled to buy the picture they took of us at the cave entrance for $ 15 dollars — um, no thanks, I want my $ 60 back!

The cave itself is interesting but we had a tour guide that was not good. He kept tripping over his words, stopping and starting over because he had misspoken about the subject, and was trying to tell jokes with horrible delivery.
We’ve seen some pretty amazing caves and although this isn’t the most impressive, I did like the fact that it takes you into some different terrain than others do. Most of the cave tours we have been on have big open walkways and rooms, but this tour makes you feel like more of a cave explorer with tighter spaces and narrow pathways. So the tour is worth it, I just hope you end up with a better guide than we did!

Awesome place! Believe our guides name was Chris. He was hilarious! Made the Lantern Tour a blast for our family (including our two kids 7 & 8-​they loved it) Mines for some treasures with the kids after the tour, everyone here was so funny and friendly! Awesome Colorado experience if you come! Check out our haunted video from our Lantern Tour if you get a chance.

Had a awesome time I haven’t been here in years I was asked to do a photoshoot for hair and makeup we ended up going to cave of the winds and did a lot of scenery pics there. very beautiful place

Our family took a haunted lantern tour yesterday and had a great time. Our children – ages 7, 11, and 16 – all said they enjoyed this spooky tour, but our youngest did get a bit intimidated by some of the stories. The tour is conducted with old fashioned kerosene lanterns, so the ambiance is full-​on!
Our tour guide was Brian and his humor was perfect. Not too much as to get in the way of some of the legends of this historic attraction in Manitou Springs. If you already know about the science of caves from visits to sites like Carlsbad Caverns, take the lantern tour instead. We definitely won’t forget this experience!
Final word: would highly recommend this tour to anyone, but families with young children may want to stick to the Cave’s Discovery Tour.

Discovery tour is a great introduction tour. Caves has a nice ambient lighting to maneuver around paths and rails for stairs. Old and young are able to walk with ease.
Will definitely go on the Lantern tour my next trip out.

This review will be brief as I only have a couple main things to address.
1. I can make a strong argument the views from the drive up and observation areas as more impressive than the cave itself; they are simply picturesque. I know what you’re thinking, «if they’re so great Jeff, why are there none attached to this review?» I have a simple answer, I forgot to charge my phone the night before, and it was dead before we got to the cave.
2. There will ALWAYS been a huge sea of humanity here. So many people, it reminded me of whack a mole; people just popping up from everywhere. That said, don’t let it deter you from taking one of the tours. They are informative and with the number of people milling about, you’ll likely run into another tour and can compare notes.

Cave of the Winds is a cave located in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. In order to access the cave (or the parking lot for that matter) you must drive up a number of switchbacks. When I think cave, I think down… not up, but in any case, this drive affords fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. As this is a very touristy attraction, there were a number of people there when my group and I arrived at lunchtime. Someone was directing traffic and we were able to find a spot in no time.
This area boasts a number of attractions in addition to the cave including the TERROR-​dactyl (a free falling swing type ride over the canyon), the Bat-​a-​Pult (a zip line type ride), and the Wind Walker Challenge Course. To enjoy all of these things in addition to the caves would burn quite a hole in the pocket. The Discovery Tour ($ 20), Lantern Tour ($ 30), TERROR-​dactyl (2 riders, $ 75), Bat-​a-​Pult ($ 20)… and so on and so forth. Then if you want snacks, souvenirs from the gift shop, or a commemorative photo from the tour you’ll be paying even more! I chose the Discovery Tour and some souvenirs and I was able to escape without too much damage.
The tour of the cave was enjoyable and unique… though there is certainly room for improvement. Our tour guide clearly memorized her script well, but was unable to embellish upon it much at all. I don’t think she was able to answer any of the questions that the group posed with a convincing answer. Often, we had to stop and wait for the tour ahead of us to finish before we could move forward in the cave. The guide rushed through the lines of her script so much so, that I found myself crouched in awkward areas and crawlspaces wondering why I couldn’t have spent some more time upright in the previous «room» checking out some of the cave formations (like cave bacon!) for a bit longer.
In the past I have taken the Lantern Tour… which was very fun if carrying lanterns, crawling, and getting dirty is your thing! It totally is for me so this is my preference when it comes to the two tours. The Discovery Tour is great for the casual caver… it is relatively easy to traverse, some bending and climbing stairs involved but easy for children up to active adults. Since the cave has been explored by the public for some time now, there is a great deal of damage to the interior of the cave. There are certainly efforts to preserve what they can (and some areas closed to the public) but there is a certain special spark that is missing when walking through a cave with concrete poured floors and walls rubbed shiny from the oil of thousands of people’s grazing hands.
When outside the caves, enjoy the Williams Canyon overlook. There are some wonderful views from the parking lot as well. Worth some photographs and group shots.
The Cave of the Winds is a great stop if you are looking for something «adventurous» to do in the area. If you play it right it can be an affordable trip… but if your with others who have to take it all in, either plan to sit back and enjoy the views or visit the ATM before making your way up!