We fought rush hour traffic and made the journey south to Colorado Springs to find 7 falls which is a 7 layer water fall that cascades down 181 feet of sheer granite. I sound like a tour guide book!
It is slightly hard to find, however. In high school you could just drive right up the entrance, park and get out to hike. But I guess in 2013 the floods washed away most of the stuff in the bottom of the canyon and The Broadmoor bought it and fixed it up. So after winding up and down roads, we found the entrance and they told us to go park the car at the hotel and take the shuttle up. So it was a little confusing. Especially when the guy at the gate started giving me navigational advice using the cardinal directions. Yeah. Not happening. All I heard was look for green signs and arrows. Done. That I can do! We successfully found the parking lot after a short detour through a billion dollar neighborhood and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo parking lot, we made it!
We hopped on the shuttle and drove back through every where we had just gone and finally we were back at the gates. Once we started walking up the path it was majestic! It was a pretty, chilly, fall-y morning and the sun doesn't quite reach some parts of the canyon, so we were cold!
Once you get through the canyon you are greeted with 145 stairs that take you to an overlook. I am not gonna lie, these stairs were tough!
But once you get to the top this is the view! Totally worth it!
Then, there is a staircase up to the actual falls. Another 200 and something, you would have to ask my tour guide/ map girl.
Yipes! The view from about half way. It was terrifying! The stairs are basically floating next to a huge mountain with huge waterfalls down the other side. They shake if there are people below you and above you and basically I just told myself to breathe and do not look down. When we finally got to the top my brave partner in crime confessed, "Mom, I was really scared!" I am glad I was not alone!
Once you get to the top there are some lovely trails that you can hike, that are super easy and have fun little hide-y holes like this one. We were following some nice family and they offered to take our picture!
The way down was actually less scary than the way up, praise God. We both made it safe and sound. So we survived 7 falls and lived to tell the tale. It was so much fun to spend some time in nature with my girl!
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