Bike With Beavers
Bicyclists can go for a pleasant pedal along a 2.1-mile paved trail (that's 3.4-km for you Canadians) from South Meadows to Manitou Lake. The Manitou Park area once served as the summer hunting grounds for the Ute Indians. The bike trail meanders its way through wispy willows and alongside a creek where you can watch busy beavers building their dams.

Camp in Thin Air
Situated on a ridge above the Rampart Reservoir, the 21-site Thunder Ridge Campground sits at an elevation of 9,200 feet. Aspen groves, spruce and wild rose thrive at this altitude, giving the campground a Garden of Eden quality . . . if Eden were in the mountains. A few choice sites command views of the 320-acre reservoir that offers fishing for rainbow and Mackinaw trout. The nearest town is Woodland Park, located at the intersection of Baldwin Street and US 24.

Climb A Working Fire Lookout
The Devil's Head Fire Lookout is the last operating fire lookout on the Front Range. The lookout is open to the public and offers a 360-degree view of the surrounding forest. The original structure went up in 1912 and was eventually replaced with a glass-enclosed structure equipped with modern fire-detecting devices. A moderate hike of 1.34 miles will get you from the trailhead located at the Devil's Head Picnic Ground to the fire lookout that sits on top of Devil's Head Mountain.

Explore a Forest of Ancient Pine
At the Bristlecone Pine Scenic Area, you will come face to face with your own mortality when you ponder ancient stands of bristlecone pine. This native Rocky Mountain conifer lives at elevations exceeding 8,000 feet and can live for a few thousands years. Using dendochronology (the counting of rings), scientists dated one specimen discovered in Nevada at 4,900 years old. Located atop Windy Ridge, at an altitude just shy of 12,000 feet, the Colorado bristlecones are tilted and twisted by torrents of unrelenting winds.

Hike the Pike
Pike's Peak, the nation's easternmost fourteener, offers several trails up to this way-too-famous summit named for explorer Zebulon Pike, who described it in 1806. Zebulon's Peak would have been a cooler name, in our humble opinion, but the mountains is no less staggering as it rises 7,800 vertical feet above the town of Manitou Springs. Did you know that the song America the Beautiful was written atop Pike's Peak? About 60,000 hikers a year use the Barr Trail to get up the mountain; perhaps the trail should be renamed as the Pike Turnpike.