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There is one tiny problem with visiting the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. You never want to leave.
Sure, come checkout time, your body will go through the motions, but your heart and mind will be clawing the wall to stay, like a cat that has realized a visit to the vet’s is imminent.
Falling in love with the fabled western landmark requires only one visit to this setting of superlatives. Since 1960, the Broadmoor has received a five-star rating from Forbes. It has also earned AAA five-diamond rating for 45 years, making it America’s longest continuously running resort to receive such accolades.
Many resorts boast a host of amenities, when all they are bragging about are nice spas, a couple of restaurants and pleasant golf course. The Broadmoor, on the other hand, walks the walk as a true destination, with everything from falconry and fly-fishing to a cog railway, seven waterfalls, a 270-seat theater and a racing museum.
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Eclectic Philadelphian Spencer Penrose — a man who would employ an elephant as a golf caddy and who stashed liquor by truckloads inside a mountain to tide him over the long, dreary days of Prohibition — built this ultimate retreat in part to rub snobby noses back East with the fact that the West could be both civilized and exciting. Penrose made oodles in gold mining, and he knew how to spend it in style and to share his wealth with the community.
Beyond animals and liquor, Penrose loved car racing. To raise awareness of the road to the top of Pike’s Peak that he built, the enterprising entrepreneur created the Broadmoor Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb when the road opened in 1916. It is the second oldest motor car race in the nation. The Penrose Heritage Museum within Broadmoor’s expansive grounds showcases the race’s history, as well as the plethora of autos and horse-drawn carriages Penrose owned.
Penrose was also instrumental in the building of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, an environmental treasure trove guests can visit via a Broadmoor shuttle.
Speaking of shuttles, there is no need to a car at the Broadmoor, for pristine shuttles appear whenever guests ask for one. If you do want a car to explore beyond the resort’s far reaches, aren’t you the lucky one, because more than 70 years ago, the Broadmoor forged a partnership with Cadillac, so resort packages include complimentary use of a vehicle from the Broadmoor’s fleet of SUVs, crossovers and sedans.
Guests can also enjoy chauffeured transportation via Cadillac to and from Broadmoor Wilderness Experience properties that include Cloud Camp and the Ranch at Emerald Valley, open May through October.
The vast Broadmoor holdings include Cloud Camp and its top-of-the-world views. Nestled in a forested summit of Cheyenne Mountain 3,000 feet above the resort, Cloud Camp is an enclave Architectural Digest named among the Top 10 Clifftop Retreats Around the World. This is glamping at its best, with five-star meals, turn-down service and all-inclusive activities in a magical environment.
Encircled by more than 100,000 acres of the Pike National Forest, the Broadmoor’s Ranch at Emerald Valley is also about luxe rustic charm. Secluded hot tubs, civilized cocktail hours, fishing at the Ranch’s two ponds, horseback riding and mountain biking define the art of roughing it in style.
The Orvis-endorsed Fly Fishing Camp, 75 minutes from the Broadmoor offers some of the best fly fishing in Colorado. Even newbies quickly get the hang of the zen art of fly fishing before heading back to the lodge for cocktail hour and fine dining.
We’re not done yet. The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway takes visitors year-round up the 14,115-foot climb to America’s Mountain. The railway, an important part of western heritage, has been climbing Pike’s Peak since 1891.
A rock avalanche closed the railroad in 2017, but it reopened, better than ever, the summer of 2021 with a spiffy depot in Manitou Springs and bright shiny red trains that slowly but surely — and with show-stopping vistas — deliver guests to the top of Pike’s Peak, where a new visitor’s center provides both education and respite from the seemingly ever-present winds and the cold.
Broadmoor’s Soaring Adventure delivers heart-pounding thrills through zip lines as long as 1,800 feet that bridge frighteningly steep rock canyons. The Woods course features five zip lines, while the Fins adds to the five zip lines two 200-foot Indiana Jones-type suspension bridges over jagged cliffs and steep drops and ending with a 180-foot controlled rappel that delivers guests at the door to Seven Falls, which they can visit before a shuttle whisks them back to their accommodations.
Less than a mile from The Broadmoor, Seven Falls includes a magnificent series of waterfalls within a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon. It is the only waterfall in Colorado in National Geographic’s list of international waterfalls.
The Broadmoor is also home to the Falconry Academy, where a cadre of falcons, hawks and owls await. Beginner’s lessons include flight demonstrations in the field and holding one of the magnificent birds with the Rocky Mountains as backdrop. An intermediate option allows the student to fly one of the birds under supervision of the resort’s resident falconer.
Broadmoor’s Wild West Experience takes guests up Old Stage Road, a stagecoach route to the Cripple Creek mine. Amidst Ponderosa pines and Douglas fir, guests will be introduced to “survival” skills such as archery, tomahawk throwing and target practice with air rifles.
So much activity does enhance the appetite, but not to worry, for dining options abound without leaving the compound. Seventeen restaurants and lounges include the pleasures of The Summit, which showcases regional cuisine from Latin, Southern and Northern America in dishes such as Navajo Fry Bread with Braised Short Rib and Pico de Gallo.
La Taverne’s menu features hormone and antibiotic-free Wagyu beef raised exclusively for The Broadmoor at Eagles’ Nest Ranch in Colorado. The restaurant’s airy Le Jardin room allows guests to dine among lush florals where live flamingos roamed during Penrose’s era.
The Golden Bee, The Broadmoor’s 19th Century British pub, was brought to the resort panel by panel from the United Kingdom.
Play at The Broadmoor is a fun-take on casual dining, with a six-lane bowling alley and a restaurant featuring retro favorites, nostalgic cocktails and even “adult” milkshakes.
As for spa, 40 treatment rooms and relaxation areas overlooking glorious mountains are hard to beat, as is the golf, rated tops in the west by Conde Nast Traveler.
The “Little Theater,” which with 270 seats is not that little, plays nightly movies that are often still running in commercial theaters.
Current owner Philip Anschutz, owner of the Xanterra travel portfolio, has lavished the historic property with care. The main buildings could double as art galleries, since walls are lined with well-crafted reproductions from the Anschutz Collection at Denver’s American Museum of Western Art.
The philanthropic Anschutz has been kind to the area, too, endowing healthcare facilities and the new Olympics Museum in Colorado Springs.
Throughout its long history, Broadmoor has hosted the rich and powerful, and several hallways are devoted to photos of previous famous guests. Presidents Kennedy, Eisenhower, Ford and H.W. Bush all played there, as did Prince Harry, Bob Hope and Jack Dempsey.
You should, too.
For more, visit broadmoor.com.
Sonnenberg is a Melbourne-based lifestyles and travel writer.
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