Broadmoor Outfitters — Attraction in Colorado Springs

Best wildlife experience EVER. The trainer that led our group is amazing, she gave a really informative but also fun talk about birds of prey and falconry. Do you know how many common expressions we use every day that come from falconry or it's approximate 6000 year history? Super interesting.

So we met various of her birds in the training room where they are housed, and she took several out one by one - owls (the most beautiful and amazing of all to me), peregrine falcon, etc - and they flew around amidst us. Just fantastic. Her talk on their history, how they're bred, trained, how to get into falconry etc was riveting.

Then we were hauled off to their outdoor area about 15 minutes away from the Broadmoor to what used to be a Broadmoor golf course but due to land 'shifts' was no longer good for that use. That was a fun drive on it's own on private property.

There she took out different birds and let them loose, 'luring' them back in various ways. At one point we formed a two sided line about 3' apart and she got the bird to fly right down the middle, his/her (?) wings touched my face. AMAZING!

Then each person got to put on the glove and hold the bird, and even 'pet' its chest. She reminds you as the bird looks at you like a big piece of meat that you signed away your rights in their waiver form.

Everyone in our group was thrilled by her presentation and the birds and all the knowledge we gained about this ancient sport.

Best thing you could possibly do any...

Falconer, Katy Wickberg, provided me with two solid solo hours of PAR EXCELLENCE discussing and demonstrating her superior ornithology skills with almost a dozen individual raptors. As her presentation progressed, she encouraged and fortified my curiosity by asking me almost as many questions as I asked her. She exuded such a confident presence as she taught me to handle Maverick and "Lancelot Link" ;^D Made it seem natural that I will pursue falconry in central Florida. Katy, thank you for sharing some of your expertise with me.

When a Broadmoor Outfitters employee answers my cell phone call to verify their physical address and rendezvous location, they first need to know the street address to share it with anyone. The numeral "6" it is NOT shown on Lake Avenue.

The cost for my 2 hours of the Broadmoor falconry is higher than 2 days of out-of-state tickets for one guest to the largest theme park in central Florida ... and this park includes parking and shuttle trams for its visitors in the price. Please, charge me $15 for my almost 3 hours of parking after you tell me you are validating my parking stub when I check in for the last falconry class of the day.

Katy earned her A++. The ancillary staff gets an F. Govern yourself...

We signed up for the combined beginner/intermediate Falconry lesson and had an absolutely incredible time. It was just the two of us on a gorgeous late February day. Deanna was our Falconer and we were thrilled to spend the morning with her learning so much about the history of Falconry as well as the birds themselves. I had no idea the variety of birds we'd get to spend time with as well as the details we'd learn about each and every one of them. This is not an experience most people have the opportunity to have and I would highly, highly recommend it. It's something we'll never forget and thankfully we have lots of video and pictures to relive it any time we want! I'd also like to give a special shoutout to Jake who gave us a warm welcome upon our arrival and started our day off with a smile and sharing how much he loves the Falconry program. It helped us be even more excited about what we were about...