About Colorado Fun

Whether you’ve just arrived in the greater Pikes Peak Region or have lived here for a lifetime, I know you’ll enjoy our fun-focused mag. Now that the pandemic has finally run its course, our cities, towns, restaurants, galleries, bars, museums, and other cultural/recreational attractions are completely open for business! We’re proud (and more than somewhat amazed) by the completion of multiple ambitious and culturally transformative projects in the last couple of years, all many years in the making. The scale and breadth of these undertakings is literally unbelievable, especially to long-term residents.

Thirty years after it was first conceived, the $75 million Olympic & Paralympic Museum is happily open in downtown Colorado Springs. It’s architecturally stunning and brilliantly imagined – don’t miss it! It’s one of the keystones of the city’s revived downtown, featuring two new sports arenas, four new medium-rise hotels, half a dozen new apartment complexes, and hundreds of restaurants, bars, and locally-owned retailers.

Heading west from downtown, make sure to stop in Old Colorado City, our region’s first settlement. The restored 19th century commercial center is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s ideal for strolling, shopping, lingering, and dining, and is the beating heart of the Westside, the largest Victorian neighborhood in Colorado.

Next stop: Manitou Springs. From there, you have three options for getting to the top of Pikes Peak. If you’re fit & fearless, you can leave early in the morning, walk 12 miles up the Barr Trail, stay for an hour and walk back. You might want to ride the completely rebuilt Cog Railway instead or drive up Highway 24 to Cascade and take the Pikes Peak Highway.

The summit views are astonishing, especially from the newly built Summit Complex. From the summit, our region lies before you; Cripple Creek, Woodland Park, Buena Vista, Salida, Canon City, and Pueblo. So as our lead story suggests, get going – there’s river rafting, dinosaur museums, hot springs, historic cities large and small, the coolest coffee shop in the world, fishing, climbing, cycling…welcome to our home towns!

Publisher

Karen Hazlehurst

Karen Hazlehurst’s three-decade journey in publishing has covered all the bases and then some. Beginning as an advertising salesperson for a chain of small weeklies in New Jersey, she transitioned into increasingly responsible positions at major American dailies, including the Asbury Park Press, The Omaha World-Herald and the Cincinnati Enquirer. As Advertising Director for the Dallas Morning News, she supervised 125 employees and generated over $100 million in annual revenue. She moved to Colorado Springs in 2007, initially serving as VP of Advertising for the Colorado Springs Gazette. More recently, she has consulted extensively for Media News Group (now Digital First Media) and served as Advertising Director for the Manitou Springs Bulletin.

Karen and her spouse John live with their three unruly dogs in a semi-restored 1899 Victorian on the historic Westside of Colorado Springs.