Everything To Know About Seven Falls, Colorado

In continuation to our Colorado series, the day before we visited Garden of the Gods, we covered another famous attraction in Colorado Springs – Seven Falls.

Seven Falls sounded promising when we first heard about it and it lived up to our expectations. It’s a privately owned attraction, opened to public since 1880, formed naturally in attractive South Cheyenne Canyon.

We left for the Norris Penrose Event Center in the morning, our pickup point for the park. They don’t have parking space (only bike parking) at the park, so complimentary shuttle services are provided to the tourists from Norris Penrose Event Center. We reached at Norris Center which was bit difficult to find (poor GPS), parked our car in parking lot and waited for the shuttle. There was a long queue of tourists, all waiting for the shuttle. When the shuttle arrived, it got full soon and we were still behind in the queue (more wait, No please !). To our luck, somehow two seats were still unoccupied and people before us were in big groups so we were asked to board.

Park is about 4 miles from the Norris Center, so it didn’t take much time to reach there. At the entrance, again there was a long queue for tickets (wished this could have been done in center itself) in which we spent close to 1.5 hour (cap is recommended, there is no shade). Ticket price is 16$ per adult and they also have Tram facility (costing 2$ per adult) to reach the Fall which is about 1 mile walk from there. We wanted to opt for Tram after standing for so long, but didn’t have patience to be in another line for it(not to talk about their frequency ) ,so we decided to walk.

Walk was actually a good option, as the place is surrounded by beautiful rock formations and creative structures giving opportunity for photography. We reached at the fall after taking enough time in the observation of surrounding. Seven Falls ,as name suggests , is a water stream falling down from height of 181 feet, forming 7 waterfalls, each with it’s unique name. It’s the only waterfall in Colorado, featured in Nat Geo’s list of international waterfalls.

To watch the falls from close, one has to climb the staircase having 224 stairs 🙂 . So basically it would be nice physical activity, considering your walk from entrance and stairs and there is more to it.

Those who don’t want to or can’t climb the stairs, have the option to watch the fall from an observatory just opposite to the Falls. Check out the observatory in below picture :-

Many preferred to stay at bottom and as can be seen in pictures, stairs were narrow, allowing only two person (1 ascending and 1 descending) at a time. There was a point in middle, kind of observation point, wide enough to allow many people to stand (also benches to sit), from where pictures can be taken and falls can be observed from close. Below video is taken from the same point :-

There were many who chose to return from that point itself. We continued our climbing, which was fun. We will highly recommend to take stairs, as once on top, you will feel thrilled for sure.

There are 2 trails, once you reach at the top. Beside watching the fall from top, hiking is a good option. We hiked a trail for few minutes ( didn’t complete it, so as to return on time ) and then returned to the view point.

After coming down the stairs, we thought of checking view from observation center as well. There is a small tunnel, through which one has to take elevator to reach at Observatory. We used elevator to reach the center (stairs are available too) and spent some time there. From the observation point, whole area can be viewed and captured through camera.

We decided to head back to our hotel and before that checked the gift shop, which was actually pricey, also didn’t find anything attractive either. We bought two ice-creams from there and started walking (1 mile) towards the entrance. Queues were not yet done with us 😀 , now one more long queue for the shuttle. We waited in the queue for long and were very much tired. After 2 shuttles, our turn came and we were like dead in the bus. Shuttle dropped us at the Norris center and we drove back to our hotel. It was a good and tiring trip, took our whole day 🙂

Points to Consider :-

1. Park is open all days except Tuesday and Wednesday.
2. Be prepared for long, long queues.
3. No parking at the park, except bikes.
4. Shuttle is the only option, available from Norris center.
5. Keep in mind, more time would be invested due to lines for shuttles, tickets and trams.
6. Bring water

Activities to do :-

• Hiking trails
• Walking
• Zip-lining (yes, it’s available, but at our time it was closed due to some reasons)
• Dining

Leave you comments and questions and let me know if you like this post.

Happy Reading !