Road Trip from Denver to Colorado Springs

Colorado Springs is the easiest road trip from Denver - it's 70 miles south on I-25 which takes just over an hour. The drive itself is a commuter highway with nothing worth stopping for, but what's waiting at the other end is one of the best collections of outdoor attractions in Colorado.

Garden of the Gods is free and genuinely spectacular. Pikes Peak is one of the only 14,000-foot mountains in America you can drive to the top of. Manitou Springs is a quirky little town tucked into a canyon at the base of the mountain. And all of it sits within 20 minutes of downtown Colorado Springs.

You can leave Denver after breakfast and be hiking in Garden of the Gods by lunch. Give yourself 2 days and you'll see everything without rushing.

🚙 EXPLORE MORE: The Best Road Trips From Denver

Read this before leaving Denver

How many days do you need?

2 days is enough to see everything. The drive from Denver is only an hour, so you're not wasting a day on the road and you can be in Garden of the Gods by mid-morning on day one.

You could do Colorado Springs as a day trip from Denver, but you'd be rushing through Garden of the Gods and skipping Pikes Peak entirely. Stopping overnight lets you have enough time to do everything without feeling hurried.

Here's what each day looks like:

Day 1: Garden of the Gods & Manitou Springs

🚗 70 miles ⏱️ 1 hour, 10 minutes

Leave Denver in the morning and drive straight to Garden of the Gods. Spend a few hours exploring the rock formations and trails, then head to Manitou Springs for lunch. It's a small, quirky town tucked into a canyon at the base of Pikes Peak, and the best place to eat near the park.

After lunch, drive up to Woodland Park and loop back down along Loy Creek Road - it's a quiet mountain road with some of the best views of the Front Range you'll get on this trip.

Day 2: Pikes Peak & Drive Home

🚗 130 miles ⏱️ 3 hours, 20 minutes

Drive to the summit of Pikes Peak in the morning - the views are clearest early and the 19-mile highway takes 2-3 hours to go up and down. Try the famous donuts at the Summit Visitor Center. Head back down, grab lunch, and drive home to Denver in the afternoon. You'll be back before dinner.

If you want to plan your stops, or extend the trip, you can build your own version of the route in the Planner

Where to stay

If you're staying overnight, base yourself in Manitou Springs rather than Colorado Springs. It's a smaller, more interesting town, and everything on the itinerary is closer from here than from downtown.

The Cliff House at Pikes Peak is right in the middle of Manitou Springs - the rooms lean more Victorian than modern, but the building has genuine character and the location is hard to beat. You can walk to restaurants for dinner and you're at the base of Pikes Peak for the drive up in the morning.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods is the main reason to make this drive, and unlike almost every other major natural attraction in Colorado, it's completely free. No entrance fee, no permit, no reservation - you just drive in.

The park is a collection of massive red sandstone formations that jut straight out of the ground at sharp angles, with Pikes Peak filling the sky behind them. It's 1,300 acres, but the main formations are concentrated in a compact central area that you can see in 2-3 hours on foot.

The Central Garden Trail is the main loop - 1.5 miles, paved, flat, and wheelchair accessible. It runs between the two biggest formations and past most of the named rocks: Kissing Camels, Cathedral Spires, the Three Graces. You can see a lot from the road, but the trail puts you right at the base of the formations where the scale hits differently.

If you want to get off the paved paths, the park has 21 miles of trails, most of them dirt singletrack through the hills around the main formations. They're not long or difficult, but they're quieter and give you views of the rocks from angles the crowds never see.

During busier periods, the rocks near the parking lot attract long queues of people waiting to get the perfect photo. If you don't want to stand in line for a selfie spot, head further into the trails - most of the crowds thin out just a few minutes away from the parking lot.

The park road loops through the formations and has pull-offs every few hundred yards. You can drive the whole thing in 20 minutes without stopping, but that's a waste - park at the main lot and walk.

Arrive early if you're visiting on a summer weekend. The main lot fills by mid-morning and you will struggle to find a place to park.

Pikes Peak

The Pikes Peak Highway is 19 miles of paved road that climbs from 7,400 feet to the 14,115-foot summit, passing through four different climate zones on the way up - you start in scrubby foothills and finish above the treeline in alpine tundra.

The drive takes about 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down, but plan 2-3 hours total. You'll want to stop at the overlooks on the way up, and the Summit Visitor Center at the top has the famous high-altitude donuts that have been made up there since the 1900s. Try them - they're genuinely good, not just a gimmick.

The views from the summit stretch across the plains to the east and the Rockies to the west. On a clear day you can see Denver. This is the mountain that inspired "America the Beautiful" - Katherine Lee Bates wrote the poem after reaching the top in 1893.

One thing to know: the altitude hits fast. You're going from 7,400 feet to 14,115 feet in under an hour. Some people get headaches, dizziness, or shortness of breath at the top. Take it easy, drink water, and don't be surprised if you feel it.

On the way back down, there's a mandatory brake check at the halfway point - rangers will check your brake temperature and hold you if they're too hot. This is normal and not optional. Use low gear on the descent and don't ride your brakes.

If you'd rather not drive, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway runs from Manitou Springs to the summit. It's a different experience - slower, no option to stop where you choose, but it means you don't have to navigate the hairpins.

Manitou Springs

Manitou Springs is the small town at the base of Pikes Peak, about 10 minutes west of Garden of the Gods. It's walkable, a little quirky, and has the best food options near the park.

The main strip is Manitou Avenue - independent shops, galleries, restaurants, and cafes packed into a few blocks of a narrow canyon. It's touristy but not in a chain-restaurant way. The buildings have character and there's enough variety that you won't run out of places to look.

The town is built around natural mineral springs - there are eight public springs scattered around town where you can fill a bottle and taste the water. Each one tastes different. Some are fine, some will make you gag. Trying them is part of the experience.

If you have spare time, the Manitou Incline is here - a former cable car track turned into one of the most brutal short hikes in Colorado. It's 2,744 steps straight up the mountain in less than a mile. It's not casual - average hikers take an hour and most people are gasping by the top. But if you want a workout with a view, nothing in the area comes close.

If you want a more casual setting, drive up the valley to Green Mountain Falls - I had a great dinner at The Blue Moose Tavern with my family and it felt like a proper local bar.

If you want more routes, check out my Denver road trip guide — there's other short trips like Rocky Mountain National Park and longer ones to Moab, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore.