Round Trip Distance: 0.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6525 - 6570 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Manitou Cliff Dwellings
Fee: Ages 4 - 11/$8, 12+/12.75, 60 +/$10
Attractions: cliff dwellings, museum
The Manitou Cliff Dwellings is a commercial site about 5 miles west of Colorado Springs, Colorado where you can enjoy a self-guided tour of a cliff dwelling that was constructed from stones brought from mesa top structures and cliff dwellings near Dolores and Cortez, Colorado.
To get there, enter 'Manitou Cliff Dwellings' into your driving app where ultimately you will be directed about 5.2 miles west from Interstate 25, in Colorado Springs, on US Highway 24, to Cliff Drive. The park is open daily between 9am to 5pm.
The sidewalk in front of the cliff dwellings is wheelchair accessible.
The inner recesses are explorable through a series of lighted tunnels and passages.
Wooden walkways provide a second story view of a few of the rooms.
Here you can see down inside of a partially reconstructed kiva.
Some structures like this tower were reconstructed to mimic the partially complete ruins that are often present at actual archeological sites.
Others are made to look as complete as possible.
Similar to actual archeological sites the cliff dwellings here take advantage of existing rocks and columns for structural support.
They also conform well to the alcove, cave, or ledge where they are found.
Within a modern pueblo visitors will find a small museum and gift shop. Near the parking lot there is also a place to get something to eat.
Surprisingly the reconstructed ruins of the Manitou Cliff Dwellings have a lot of the same look and feel as some of the scores of actual archeological sites that we have visited. Many people will lament the fact that they pilfered the materials from some of those actual sites rather than quarrying new stones themselves but they were by no means the first to do that.
The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are very educational and well worth the visit. They are hard to beat without going all the way to Mesa Verde National Park to see the real thing.
If you would like to see them for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
