Manitou Cliff Dwellings — Attraction in Manitou Springs

My family and I went to the cliff dwellings today. The dwellings themself are nice, well maintained and educational. The views are gorgeous. However, the museum/gift shop staff was absolutely awful. My ten year old son and two of his friends came into the store. We were about 10 steps behind them when some grouchy employee told them they need to stay with their parents. They weren’t misbehaving, bumping into things or causing any problems. They were walking and talking. My daughter (16) had gone to the bathroom and when she came back, she heard one of the employees say “Is it just me or have the kids here been really bad today? Earlier, I wanted to drop-kick one of them into the canyon.” This is a place that’s full of kids, and parents bring them for education. What an awful approach to have toward children. Before going into the museum area (which is about 10 feet in the middle of the store), my husband bought me a hat which I put on. After looking at the museum, the kids wanted some candy. As I was standing IN THE STORE talking to the boys about what they wanted, the girl behind the checkout asked, “Ma’am, do you have a receipt for that hat?” Again, I was still in the store, nowhere near an exit or trying to go to the museum area. I told her my husband had just paid for it. As we were checking out, I told her I thought it was incredibly rude that she would essentially accuse me of stealing a hat for no reason, when I was still in the store. If she didn’t know that it was paid for, it would make sense to ask me as I was checking out (‘Do you plan on purchasing the hat too?’), or if I was leaving with it and she wasn’t sure, but she interrupted my conversation with the kids in the middle of the store for no reason. Neither of these were bad “customer service” experience; they were essentially employees going out of their way to be...

This museum is truly a gem. I went here after hiking the incline, and spent a little over an hour exploring the dwellings and gift shop. In short, the dwellings were moved here from Western Colorado, and reassembled using cement rather than clay mortar to allow greater durability so that visitors could walk through and touch them. There is also an adobe house in which Native Americans lived until the 1980s, now hosting most of the gift shop. The cliff dwellings have interesting and informative signs, though these blurbs can be listened to using on a cell phone. There is also an outdoor cafe, which was closed at the time of my afternoon visit in February. I was able to pay for entry (at the gate before the parking lot) and purchases at the gift shop using Apple Pay. Admission fee was more than reasonable and does have military discount ($10 instead of $14 for just me). The one-lane parking lot is quite long up a hill, and if you got there late on a busy day, you might have to park at the far end, which is at the bottom of the hill. This February weekday was not busy so I was able to park quite close. I believe the grounds would be wheelchair accessible, though definitely not the interior of the dwellings. I consider this a must-see while in the Colorado Springs area, especially if you’re in the manitou region for something else such as the incline or pikes peak cog train, and have an hour...

This is an unguided tour of the cliff dwellings. I did not see any staff of any sort during our exploration. There are a few signs and some railings and you basically get to wander in the path someone who dwelled here almost a thousand years ago did. There is a little museum area with some additional artifacts and information. Definitely a commercialized attraction, with accent on the gift shop. Like most of the features in this area once you have paid your admission then it's all about getting you the trinkets to go with it. However this does allow you to proceed at your own pace and return back to look at something from different angles. Pretty amazing to see something in good shape that you literally drive right up to on the blacktop. There were some signs of things that had been stabilized, and reconstructed and places where they have punched holes and installed lighting, so you do have to wonder how much of this is actually original.

It's worth the stop to visit. And while you're standing at the base of the cliff dwelling, look out into the valley and ask yourself just how far did they have to go to hunt and to bring water into the dwelling everyday. Look at the climb that was involved, surely they had to get down more to the floor of the valley to get a decent amount of game or any kind of cultivated harvest. It would have been a very primitive but busy lifestyle just...