Cave of the Winds

A natural limestone cave system discovered in 1881 in Williams Canyon. The caves contain formations dating back millions of years and were considered sacred by the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. Now a popular tourist attraction offering various cave tours.

Cave of the Winds has been in continuous operation as a visitor attraction since 1881, making it one of the oldest commercial caves in Colorado. The cave system in Williams Canyon was first documented in 1880 when two brothers, John and George Pickett, discovered the entrance during a hike led by the Reverend Roselle T. Cross, pastor of the Congregational Church in Colorado Springs. The cave's spiritual significance, however, predates European discovery by centuries. The Jicarilla Apache of New Mexico reported in 1960 that they believe the Cave of the Winds is home to the Great Spirit of the Wind, and that anyone entering the cave risks becoming twisted in both body and mind by the twisting movement of wind passing through the open gorge. The cave was open to visitors from 1881 until 1907, when it was closed to the public. It reopened in 1980, and portions of the historic Manitou Grand Caverns section were eventually restored for public lantern tours.

The reopening of the Grand Caverns section has resulted in numerous reports of paranormal activity by staff, visitors, and cave explorers. One of the most persistent ghost stories involves George and Nelly, past owners of the cave operation, whose tragic love story is said to keep them bound to the underground passages. Staff conducting lantern tours in the darker sections of the cave have reported hearing whispered voices when their tour groups are silent, seeing shadows move against cavern walls where no one is standing, and feeling sudden cold drafts that cannot be explained by the cave's normal air patterns. Visitors on the tours have captured unexplained anomalies in photographs, including light formations that don't correspond to any known light source.

Beyond the named spirits, the cave carries the weight of those who entered and never returned. Over the decades, multiple explorers and visitors have been lost in the extensive cave system, and their stories have become part of the local lore. Several paranormal investigation teams have been invited by management to investigate the cave, and in 2012, Cave of the Winds was featured on the Biography Channel's My Ghost Story, which shared the findings of an investigation by The Spirit Chasers paranormal team.

Today Cave of the Winds offers regular Haunted Cave Lantern Tours alongside its standard Discovery and Lantern tours. The haunted tours take visitors into the oldest and least-visited sections of the cave by the light of handheld lanterns, combining the geological wonder of the formations with the paranormal history of one of North America's most haunted caves.