Seven Falls is a series of seven cascading

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s of South Cheyenne Creek in South Cheyenne Cañon, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It has been a privately-owned tourist attraction since it was opened in the early 1880s. There is no parking at Seven Falls. Round trip shuttle service is provided from the Norris Penrose Event Center. Trails from the top of the falls lead to Midnight Falls, near the headwaters of South Cheyenne Creek, and Inspiration Point.

Geography

Seven Falls is located in Colorado Springs along the

Front Range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encounter ...

. It is in a natural

box canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to ...

in South Cheyenne Cañon. The entrance to the canyon is about southwest of downtown Colorado Springs on Cheyenne Boulevard. The South Cheyenne Cañon road to Seven Falls has been called "The Grandest Mile of Scenery" in Colorado. The falls are located in a granite canyon.

Ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

Douglas fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...

Juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

, and

Blue Spruce The blue spruce (''Picea pungens''), also commonly known as Colorado spruce or Colorado blue spruce, is a species of spruce tree native to North America in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It is noted for its blue-green co ...

are found in the Seven Falls park.

Falls

The sum of the height of the seven falls is and there are a total of 224 steps on the staircase from the base of the falls to the peak. There is a wheel-chair-accessible elevator that goes up to the Eagle's Nest observation platform with views of the falls. The falls are named in alphabetical order (not top to bottom): Bridal Veil, Feather, Hill, Hull, Ramona, Shorty, and Weimer. Susan Joy Paul, author of ''Hiking Waterfalls in Colorado'', describes it as "seven leaps of plunge, cascade, punchbowl, fan, and horsetail spray." Seven Falls is Colorado’s only waterfall that is included in the

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

list of international waterfalls. Local wildlife includes

hummingbirds Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

, the Water Ouzel or American Dipper songbird that swims, and

Brook Brook may refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming People * Brook (surname) *People with the given name Brook, ...

and

Rainbow Trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

Trails

There are two hiking trails that begin at the top of Seven Falls. They are open from May through October until 7 p.m. The Inspiration Point trail is a winding trail to Inspiration Point and takes about one hour round trip. There are views of the city of Colorado Springs and the plains. This was a favored spot of

Helen Hunt Jackson Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She de ...

's that inspired her poetry. She was originally buried at the point. A shorter trail is about a half-hour hike to Midnight Falls, near the South Cheyenne Creek headwaters. The trails begin at in elevation and end at about in elevation. No vehicle parking is available at the falls. Bicycle parking is available at the entrance.

Rock formations

Just inside the entrance to the Seven Falls property is the Pillars of Hercules, which are high from the floor of the canyon. Across from the Pillars of Hercules is the George Washington profile. At this point, the canyon walls are just apart.

History

Late 19th century

Nathaniel Colby homesteaded in South Cheyenne Canyon, including Seven Falls in December 1872. He sold the land rights nine months later for $1,000 (equivalent to $ in ) to the Colorado Springs Land Company. In 1882, fearing logging operations would ruin the scenic area, naturalist James Hull purchased the property. The trail to Inspiration Point was launched in 1883. By 1885, he owned in the canyon. Hull built a stairway to the top of the falls and built a road through the canyon. Customers came by horses, burros, and carriages, and paid a toll to enter Seven Falls.

20th century

After Hull's death in 1890, his sons owned the property, which was assessed by the county at $80,000 (equivalent to $ in ) and estimated to be worth more than $200,000 (equivalent to $ in ) by the local ''

Gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

''. The property, now was bought for $250,000 (equivalent to $ in ) by Callidore Dwight Weimer in 1905. Weimer, a successful mine owner and developer born in Ohio, had become a permanent resident of Colorado Springs in 1903. Melvin Weimer, and his wife Frances, co-managed the Seven Falls business. Frances was a longtime supporter of the

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado ...

and manager of several family businesses in New Mexico and Colorado. It was sold to Al Hill, a

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...

student and an oilman from Texas, in 1946. To extend business hours into the nighttime, Hill added lights in the canyon in 1947. The Hill family built the Eagle's Nest Observation platform, and cut into the side of the mountain for an elevator, which was updated in 1992. For Christmas in 1947, the canyon was opened at night for free to the people of Colorado Springs, allowing a charity to collect donations, an event that became an annual tradition. The Seven Falls park was wiped out after a flood in 1965. In December 2002, a dynamic Martin Architectural lighting system was installed which bathed the cascades in color. Seven Falls is still known as the only fully lit canyon in the world. The area sustained a significant flood in September 2013, which forced Seven Falls to close until restoration was complete in 2015. The cost has increased over the years. In 2023 the admission price was USD$18 for adults, USD$12 for age 2 to 12.

Broadmoor

Five days of heavy rains in mid-September 2013 caused similar damage to a significant flood in 1965. The worst-hit area of the city, the southwest side of Colorado Springs, received up to of water. The large amount of water flowing over the falls resulted in five falls rather than seven. The Seven Falls park had downed trees, standing water, mud, and a damaged road. The park was closed and the incoming streets were blocked. In April 2014, it was announced that

The Broadmoor The Broadmoor (stylized as THE BRODMOOR) is a hotel and resort in the Broadmoor, Colorado, Broadmoor neighborhood of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Broadmoor is a member of Historic Hotels of America of the National Trust for Historic Preservat ...

had purchased Seven Falls, with plans to reopen the park in 2015. The property had been owned by the A.G. Hill family for 68 years. The Broadmoor re-opened Seven Falls on August 13, 2015. The site now features remote parking at the hotel, with a shuttle bus to the canyon, freeing up vehicle congestion and parking issues that had been a problem in the past. The Broadmoor simultaneously opened Restaurant 1858, a fine dining establishment at the foot of the Falls.