Haunted Lantern Tour: Cave of The Winds
It’s my niece’s 12th birthday and while we were out for a drive together she had mentioned that she’s been into all things spooky and haunted. I love giving my nieces and nephews gifts through experiences whenever I can so I thought what better than the Haunted Lantern Tour at Cave of The Winds in Manitou Springs, CO as neither of us had been before.
After one long climb up their enormous slide, we followed our tour guide and the history began to set the tone. Once inside they immediately ask if you want a photo, to which my niece instantly replied yes haha. (I can’t seem to find my copy but she has the original!) It was beautifully lit inside, so many paths, passages and flowing water as we followed a trail straight to the back, where our tour would begin.
There are other regular tours happening simultaneously, though you never really run into anyone for long. We wait for one of the regular tours to pass, as we half ascended the wooden staircase, before our guides turned off all the lights as we stood wherever we were, in darkness. I felt something pull on my shirt and then the lights came back on.
At the top of the stairs is what appeared to be an old miners cave with an entrance into a pitch black hole, sealed with an iron gate and lock. We were standing to the right of the entrance in a single file line and a rack of kerosene lanterns hung to the left. They send you on your own and I was at the very front to lead us in, lantern in hand.
You could feel the cold envelope you as soon as you walked through the entrance, a scared passage of energy from the past, from those who’ve come to visit and those who could not find themselves to leave.
Slightly crouched to walk through, I could hardly see a thing aside from my feet but was still trying to look at everything and take it all in. Eventually the path brought us into a small room lit by a lantern in the middle. Everyone gathered together in a circle, our lights flickering across the rock formations around us as our eyes began to adjust, it is so much darker in here than you could even imagine.
Here, we were asked to introduce ourselves to one another. I believe there were no more than 10 to 15 of us total, including the guides. My niece was the youngest of the group and they got a kick out of having her, as well as the both of us being sensitive, knowing we were about to have a lot of activity.
This section of the caves themselves were so beautiful and immersive, tiny corridors you huddle through for extended lengths that open into huge echoing chambers, natural carved stairs, jagged edges, cracks and shelves to peer through, all so vast in the complete darkness - one truly could get lost.
Me and my niece at the top of the giant slide beforehand - 2024
Our kerosene lanterns - 2024
Me and my niece on our way out of the caves - 2024
We eventually find ourselves in a large chamber with another rack of lanterns, though there were only one or two. To the left is a dark tunnel, straight ahead are large piles of rock and stone, that to me, look like bones and to the right would be where we had just come from.
As soon as we were in this room I felt the activity a lot more. It was a lot further back and only one tour was allowed to be down there at a time; seems like the perfect place to exist without being bothered if you ask me!
The guides tell a story that ends with my nieces lantern being thrown into the darkness and told to go alone and retrieve it. The other adults were kind of shocked but that’s what we came here for! After a little nervous chuckle, she confidently went forward into the dark alone.
We were standing at yet another threshold entrance and as we passed through, the “Cave Kiss” water dropped on me in which they say provides 5 years of good luck. I then felt a presence with me from that moment forward.
Through the entrance we were welcomed into an echoing acoustic chamber with circular shapes in the ceiling and this is where I was suddenly seeing the past through a soft, warm filtered lens, layered atop of my literal cold, dark reality as though watching a double exposed movie. My niece and myself were instructed to stand in front of another dark entrance with our backs turned to it. She said she kept feeling someone pulling on her shirt, trying to trip her feet and pulling on her hair, and though I felt something tingling down the back of my neck, my curiosity kept being pulled deeper within the caves.
We then walked into a very long and much taller chamber that we were only able to stay on one side of, as there was wooden fencing that ran along the other side. It was noticeably colder here, being able to see your breath like smoke. There was an old wooden ladder that reached these great shelves, I was so lost in the thought of what it would’ve been like back then that I genuinely felt as though there was so much light in here. Atop one of the taller shelves I saw someone standing and watching us, again not thinking about any of this until majority of the group was walking forward and the section I was in began to get extremely dark, suddenly remembering we are in a completely pitch black cave with only our tour on the ground with us. When I looked back up, the person I had seen was gone.
I never felt a moment of darkness or uneasiness until right after this. I remember something about a wall with all these letters on it that George, the owner, had painted, showing where the out of state visitors were from but something about that didn’t feel right. That’s the part of history that always gets me, who’s to say or really know what actually happened? Anyways, they begin telling us about “The Pit”, the air felt thin and veiled with a strange sinister energy. I began feeling very light headed and was seeing so many visions in my mind while waiting for everyone in our tour to get a glimpse but at that point I did not want to be there at all.
I looked at e-v-e-r-ything on this tour. Every dark hole, volunteering anytime someone could, walking into the dark alone, I was all for all of it because I really wanted the full experience and to feel as much as I could. But this dark endless pit that everyone so casually looked into, I couldn’t find myself to look for more than a split second and saw far more than I could explain.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that “The Pit” is at the very end of the path in the furthest part of this specific section of caves as there are no other corridors to walk throufh or paths to walk around. One way in, one way out. Talk about trapped energy! lol.
*Afterwards I did a lot of research and watched as many videos as I could about the pit but nothing was as potent as when we were there in that moment, that still I can’t even really full put into words what I experienced and I always wonder if I were to go back, would it be the same?
On the way back we stopped by that dark entrance they had told my niece and I to turn our backs to earlier, which we were now being told is one of the most paranormally active sections of the caves. This is called “Lovers Lane” where George the owner and his partner Nelly would stay overnight. In reflecting, the area it was in really felt like the heart of these caves. Once we were tucked all the way back into the tunnel, there are a handful of artifacts placed almost like a shrine and they asked us to all turn off our lights. This was the first time we all silently stood in complete darkness in the caves together. I became surprised in my sudden rise of emotions and how impactful these few minutes of darkness actually were.
As we began our way out, I soaked in the energy of the spirits and this sacred place as much as I could knowing I was going to miss being here, as its not somewhere you can suddenly decide to go on a whim in the middle of the night. And while at the forefront there are a lot spirits from the1880’s, there is an even deeper, subtle presence that is more ancient than the stones themselves. The land begs to be witnessed, spirits of the past dying to be kept alive and wether you are a paranormal enthusiast or a sceptic, there is something for everyone to see, feel and experience from these caves that are millions of years old.
How I found the Cave of the winds : being the true story as set forth by the discoverer, George W. Snider
Historic photo of cave tour at Manitou Springs. William Henry Jackson photo, courtesy Denver Public library
*It is believed that both Apache and Ute Native Americans knew about the cave. The name, Cave of the Winds, relates to a legend involving the Apache, who were said to believe the cave was the home of a Great Spirit of the Wind. The first documented mention of the cave came in 1880 when John and George Pickett, discovered the cave. Cave of the Winds has been in continuous operation since 1881, making it one of Colorado’s oldest visitor attractions.
Cave of The Winds Cave Tours