Cheyenne Canon Inn

An Arts and Crafts inn from 1921 right at the entrance to North Cheyenne Canon Park. Eight guest rooms with mountain views — originally someone's private home.

The Cheyenne Canon Inn has a history dating back to the early 1850s in one of Colorado Springs' most scenic and secluded canyons. The building has served multiple purposes over the decades -- it was previously a gambling parlor, then a sanctuary for nurses, before becoming the inn it is today. The architecture reflects this layered history, with mysterious features including doors that lead to nowhere and various trapdoors throughout the building, remnants of its earlier incarnations that give the property an inherently enigmatic character.

The most well-known spirit at the inn is Alex Riddle, whose ghost has been spotted on the grounds for over a century. Riddle has been seen both inside the building and on the surrounding property, though accounts of who he was in life and why he remains at the inn vary. His long tenure as a spectral resident suggests a deep connection to the land or the building that preceded the current inn.

Guests returning to their rooms late at night have reported seeing strange lights on the stairs and in the hallways that have no obvious source. Figures in period clothing have been encountered in the corridors, and objects move around rooms by themselves. Doors open and close without anyone touching them, a phenomenon made more unsettling by the building's existing doors-to-nowhere, which blur the line between architectural oddity and paranormal activity. The inn's location in the canyon, surrounded by towering red rock formations and dense forest, creates an atmosphere of isolation that amplifies the eeriness of these encounters.

The Cheyenne Canon Inn has been featured in Stephanie Waters' book Ghosts of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak and is recognized as one of the haunted landmarks of the Colorado Springs region. The combination of the building's unusual architectural features, its multiple past lives as different types of establishments, and the persistent sightings of Alex Riddle make it one of the more enigmatic haunted locations in the Pikes Peak area.