My husband and I took a weekend away to celebrate our 3rd anniversary last year. We picked Colorado Springs since we only live about an hour and a half away, and the town is known for being very dog friendly. After many internet searches about what to do in CO Springs, I heard many good things about Seven Falls. Just like it sounds, Seven Falls is seven waterfalls strung together on the side of a canyon. Pretty cool, huh?! And they allow dogs, which is always a bonus for us! However, I couldn’t really find that much information on The Broadmoor (the resort that runs the Seven Falls tourism) website for Seven Falls. So I put together a guide on what we learned from our little adventure that will hopefully help you enjoy the falls to the fullest.
First of all, parking is a little confusing. But it is free! There are “directions” on the website, but they weren’t that helpful. It’s easy enough to put the 1045 Lower Gold Camp Rd parking address into the GPS. But when you pull up to the Norris Penrose Event Center, it gets a little complicated. After driving around the parking lot, trying to figure out where we were supposed to park and with no one there to ask, we finally just parked in a semi-empty lot. There’s a shuttle that takes you from the parking lot to the falls… which was nowhere to be seen. Turns out, we parked in the wrong lot. After turning into the events center, there is a separate, not very clearly marked parking lot for Seven Falls goers on the left side down the hill as you drive in, right before you hit the events center. That is where the shuttle will pick you up. There are bathrooms available here. If you wait you may have to use port-o-potties later in the park.
If you’re like us and plan to take your pup with you to the falls, we found that dogs are allowed on the shuttles and pretty much everywhere in the park, except inside the restaurant. So don’t worry about taking your four-legged friends. Our shuttle driver absolutely loved having our pups onboard, and he gave Juno so many scratches. If you do bring your dogs, do not let them drink from the streams. We saw a warning about parasites in one area, so just best to avoid all the water.
After the shuttles drops you off and you walk down a short path, there will be a ticket booth where you’ll purchase tickets and also receive a “map” of the park, which is mostly a cartoon drawing of the .8 mile walk to the falls. As of now, adult tickets are $16 for the whole day, including re-entry for the day. But make sure to check the Broadmoor website for pricing updates. Fun sidenote: when it says “bathrooms”, it really means port-o-potties, just so you’re aware. So just make sure to bring some hand sanitizer…like we even leave home without it anymore!
You’ll see on the Broadmoor Seven Falls website that it is only a .8 mile walk to the falls from the ticket booth. Easy, peasy we thought, especially since it’s on a paved walkway. And we were right! It’s just too bad I missed the little part about the 224 steps to the top of the falls. As in 224 very steep, narrow stair steps to the tip top of the falls. Yup… missed that little detail! Well, in our minds, a little over a 1.5 mile walk round trip on a paved walkway was nothing, so we were not too worried about forgetting our water. Oops! Needless to say after the trek up and down the steps, we purchased a giant bottle at their conveniently placed gift shop. So if you’re a dummy like us, don’t fret. You can buy water at the shop. Also, if you’re not up for the walk to get to the falls, there is a tram that will take you from the ticket booth to the falls and back again for $2 per person. But if you want to go to the top of the falls, you’ll have to take the stairs.
Once you walk the .8 miles to the falls, there will be a little restaurant and gift shop. Keep walking past the restaurant and you’ll literally run into the falls…. And the 224 steps to the top. Since our dogs are in pretty good shape from going on hikes with us and playing together like 24/7, we thought it would be no big deal for them to climb the steps.
Joke’s on us!
Juno, our oldest pup about 7 years old at the time was a champ on the steps both up and down! Bailey, our 6 month old Aussie pup on the other hand, was completely freaked out that she could see through the steps and refused to climb. So Marcus had to carry her up the 224 steps and down 224 more steps on the way back. To put that in perspective, according to the website, Seven Falls is 181 feet tall. That’s like climbing a 17 story building!
Once you get to the top after climbing and I repeat very steep, very long 224 steps and reach the top, there will be a few trail options. We opted for the shorter trail this time, Midnight Falls Loop Hike which ends up being shorter than 1 mile round trip. There are two longer hikes, one to Inspiration Point and the longest, Stage Road Loop Hike which is about 3 miles, that takes you to both Midnight Falls and Inspiration Point. But we didn’t really feel up for one of the longer hikes at this time.
Once you finish hiking, it’s back down the steps. Going down is faster than going up, but the steps are pretty steep, so make sure to hang on to the railing if you’re like me and gravity seems to affect you more than the average person. There is a landing about halfway down the steps to take a quick break, if needed.
We thought we were done for the day when we got back down, but then discovered a little tunnel off to the side with an elevator at the end. We went in the elevator, with the dogs of course. No sign saying we couldn’t, so assuming that was okay. Once we reached the top, that was the view I had been waiting for. From here you can see all of the 7 waterfalls individually that make up the Seven Falls. Make sure you hit this spot up for sure!
One last thing to mention is that you can zipline at Seven Falls. When I heard this, I was like yeah, yeah. I’ve been ziplining before. No big deal. But when you see how tall those canyon walls are and how high those zipliners go when they jump off the top, it’s exhilarating to watch. Truly! You do have to book the Soaring Adventures zipling tours separately through The Broadmoor, but it looks completely worth it! We are planning a trip back, leaving the puppies at home this time to try out the zipline adventure for ourselves. Will report back!