Base your Colorado vacation in the heart of historic Cascade, at the foot of the Pikes Peak Highway. From the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, this comfortable old Victorian functioned as the region's Ranger Station. Today it is rejuvenated and furnished to reflect its past as a gathering place for locals and visitors eager to hunt and fish among the legendary forested slopes surrounding Pikes Peak. Your stay at the Ranger Station will open the door to an earlier time when folks came up Ute Pass to relax among the mountain spruce and ponderosa, away from the heat of the "lowlands" and bustle of city life.

The Station's spacious kitchen welcomes us back to a real connection with great-grandma, sitting at the table over coffee or tea, chatting and keeping hands busy helping with dinner chores. The dining table invites the family to eat the old-fashioned way together, enjoying meals with the honest hunger that fresh mountain air and exercise bring on. Food never tasted so good, nor sleep so deep and sweet, as in the embrace of this generous old house. In the living room, the 100+ year-old fireplace still works, reminding us that summer is only one of Colorado’s mountain moods.

There is much to do, close by and within easy driving. Across Highway 24, brown and rainbow trout can be glimpsed in fast-moving Fountain Creek. Only five minutes from the Station, Waldo Canyon beckons the hiker. Road bikers can join the Olympic bicyclists as they train, cycling up Ute Pass from Manitou to Cascade. Local bike shops also bus cyclists to the top of Pike's Peak, from which you can bike an exciting 19 miles down to the foot of the highway! Or you can take the Pikes Peak Highway by car just make sure your brakes are good.