Haunted things to do in Colorado Springs
Looking for haunted things to do in Colorado Springs? These 11 are the real ones — Gold Camp Road Tunnels, Haunted Manitou Ghost Tour and Scileppi's at the Old Stone Church among them — actual dark-history sites and genuinely unsettling places, not a seasonal haunted house with a fog machine. They spread across North Cheyenne Cañon / Bear Creek, Manitou Springs, Castle Rock, Palmer Lake and 2 more areas, so two or three can make a whole afternoon. 6 of them cost nothing. Every entry is hand-vetted against real sources — not scraped off a top-ten list or averaged out of crowd ratings.
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Gold Camp Road Tunnels
A string of old railroad tunnels carved into the hills above Colorado Springs, several reputedly haunted — local legend says you can park in neutral inside Tunnel 2 at night and feel spirits push your car through, leaving tiny handprints on the trunk.
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Haunted Manitou Ghost Tour
A 75-minute lantern-lit walking tour through downtown Manitou's dim alleys and back corners, unspooling a mile's worth of murders, hauntings, and forgotten gold-town history — running its 30th year.
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Scileppi's at the Old Stone Church
Scileppi's is a family-owned Italian restaurant operating since 2018 inside an 1888 rhyolite-stone Catholic church — Castle Rock's first — where the bar sits over what was once the church cemetery and regulars report a ghost girl in white haunting the old choir loft upstairs. The combination of genuinely good pasta, stained-glass ambiance, religiously-themed menu sections (including a two-top dubbed "the Confessional"), and well-documented paranormal lore makes it one of the most atmospheric dining rooms on the Front Range.
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B&B Cafe
The B&B Cafe has anchored downtown Castle Rock since 1946, and two bullet holes — one in the pressed-tin ceiling near the vintage ceiling fan, one in the ornate Italian marble and onyx back-bar — mark where shots flew during the Valentine's Day arrest of a teenage fugitive who fatally shot Town Marshal Raymond Lewis. The cafe is still a beloved locals' breakfast and brunch spot, its original back-bar and booths largely intact.
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Cantril School House
This 1897 Roman-arched stone schoolhouse — a National Register of Historic Places landmark purchased by the Town of Castle Rock in 2023 — now buzzes with art classes, open studios, and rotating exhibitions run by the Tri Arts Project, all while "Matilda," a gray lady ghost reportedly spotted on the staircase to the bell tower, haunts the hallways with footsteps and toppled books. It's a rare place where genuine history, local legend, and living arts programming share the same creaking floors.
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The Estemere
The Estemere is a genuine 1887 Queen Anne Victorian mansion — 18 rooms, seven fireplaces, a billiard room with stained-glass panels, a carriage house, and a chapel — sitting on 6.5 acres above 7,000 feet, built by Palmer Lake's dentist-founder and now a lovingly restored private residence. Its storied history as a millionaire's retreat, a girls' camp, and a Depression-era weaving school is documented in a full-length architectural history published by the Palmer Lake Historical Society.
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Haunted Lantern Tour at Cave of the Winds
A 90-minute walk through the Manitou Grand Caverns lit only by a hand-carried flame lantern, down narrow tunnels and low passages while a guide tells ghost stories and unexplained-phenomena tales of the cave. It runs year-round (closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day), with daily tours available from late morning into the evening (last slots around 8 p.m. in summer). Every October it expands into a longer, darker Director's Cut starting at 6 p.m. for ages 13 and up. Reservations are essential because weekend and holiday tours sell out.
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Pikes Peak Phantom Ghost Tour
This nightly, year-round walking ghost tour leads small groups through downtown Colorado Springs after dark, stopping at genuinely haunted-reputation buildings like the Mining Exchange, the Gold Room, and the Acacia Park area. Guides weave in real local history alongside murder tales and paranormal lore as you walk the lamp-lit streets. It runs as an evening experience rather than a daytime stroll.
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Red Mountain
Everyone in Manitou grinds up the famous Incline — almost no one climbs the mountain right across the canyon, which is stranger and emptier. Red Mountain had its own scenic incline railway, built in 1912 and so steep it terrified riders; it limped along and died by 1922, leaving only the foundations of a summit dance pavilion and engine house up top. It's also the mountain Emma Crawford begged to be buried on — her fiancé and eleven townsfolk hauled her coffin up in 1891, and decades later the rains washed her bones back down the slope, which is why Manitou races coffins down Main Street every Halloween. The trail nearly traces the dead railway's grade to a 360° view of Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods, usually with no one else on it.
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Crystal Valley Cemetery
Manitou's principal graveyard since 1882, terraced up a hillside and on the National Register — and the place where Emma Crawford finally came to rest. After her coffin famously washed down Red Mountain in 1929 and her bones sat in City Hall for two years, the town reburied her here; a memorial stone marks the spot. Wander the old plots and you'll also find a Civil War general, the first woman to be mayor of Manitou, and Theresa Kenny, who in the 1930s built and stuccoed her own mausoleum while she was still alive to enjoy it. In summer the historic-tour guides walk you through it — booked, oddly enough, through Miramont Castle.
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Old Colorado City History Center
Old Colorado City was a rowdy 1859 gold-rush town that predated Colorado Springs — and when prim, dry Colorado Springs banned booze next door, the saloons here stayed wet. Story has it merchants dug tunnels under Colorado Avenue connecting the taverns on the south side to the brothels over on Cucharras Street, so respectable men could slip in unseen and keep their names clean. The tunnels are sealed up now, but this free, volunteer-run little museum keeps the seedy side alive in photos and artifacts — and the historical society made a self-guided phone tour so you can walk the avenue and stand right over where they ran.
Haunted things to do in Colorado Springs — FAQ
Which haunted places & dark-history spots in Colorado Springs are the strangest?
Ranked by how strange they actually are: Red Mountain, Scileppi's at the Old Stone Church and Cantril School House. Red Mountain — Everyone in Manitou grinds up the famous Incline — almost no one climbs the mountain right across the canyon, which is stranger and emptier.
Where in Colorado Springs are they?
Across North Cheyenne Cañon / Bear Creek, Manitou Springs, Castle Rock, Palmer Lake and Downtown Colorado Springs and 1 more. Each listing gives the neighborhood and address so you can cluster a couple into one outing.
Are any of the haunted places & dark-history spots in Colorado Springs free?
Yes — 6 are free to visit, including Gold Camp Road Tunnels, B&B Cafe and The Estemere. The rest are mostly low-cost.
Is this a good weird date in Colorado Springs?
That's what the list is built for. Every entry has a specific move rather than a vague recommendation — at Red Mountain, for instance: Skip the Incline's stair-climbing crowds and take its empty twin instead — start by the Cog Railway / Iron Springs Chateau, hike the switchbacks up the old ghost-railway grade, and split a thermos at the pavilion ruins where Emma Crawford was once buried, the whole city laid out below.
How were these haunted places & dark-history spots chosen?
An agentic research system digs for the genuinely obscure — the spots even locals miss — and every one is verified against real sources before it makes the list. We deliberately skip the landmarks already on every Colorado Springs guide.