Manitou Springs is a small, artsy town tucked into a narrow valley at the foot of Pikes Peak, just west of Colorado Springs. Originally a resort town built around its natural mineral springs — you can still taste the water at public fountains around town — it has reinvented itself as a bohemian counterpoint to the more conservative Springs next door.
The main street is walkable and lined with galleries, independent shops, the old Penny Arcade, and a salt water taffy store. Briarhurst Manor is the standout restaurant. Several of the old resort-era hotels have been restored. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings, a collection of moved Ancestral Puebloan stone rooms built into a red sandstone cliff, sit at the western edge of town. Manitou is also the trailhead for the Barr Trail up Pikes Peak and the starting point for the punishing Manitou Incline, which climbs 2,000 feet in under a mile up the old funicular railway ties.