Win prizes in the Out There Colorado scavenger hunt!

Think you know every nook and cranny of Colorado Springs' parks?

This week, we’re putting that knowledge to the test. To help motivate you to leave the couch before or after your Thanksgiving feast, we’ve put together a scavenger hunt through seven parks and open spaces.

Have holiday plans? Skip shopping Friday and do it then or spread the scavenger hunt over several days. Just follow our directions and answer the questions, and you’ll burn off some of the gravy oozing through your veins while maybe learning something about our beloved parks.

OK, we’ll also bribe you. Email the answers to news@outtherecolorado.com by
Nov. 29 and you’ll be entered to win a pair of lift tickets at Monarch Mountain — southern Colorado’s home of all-natural snow — and gift cards for Mountain Chalet and Mountain Equipment Recyclers.

If the directions have you stumbling around the woods lost, click here to follow our visual clues.

Have fun!

1. Your search begins at the Starsmore Discovery Center at the entrance to North Cheyenne Cañon. Walk around to the right of the building, where you’ll see a sign that says “Keep wildlife wild.” The rock next to the sign has an animal carved into it — what’s the animal? Get stuck? See visual clue No. 1 at our website.

2. Drive up the road to the parking lot of a well-known waterfall, where you can find “Bruin-Inn” still painted on a rock wall for the inn that burned decades ago. Read the sign at the trailhead. These falls are named for a writer. What pen name did she use?

3. Walk up the waterfall trail. It’s popular among tourists, and there must have been incidents in the past because there are warning signs all over. How many signs include the words “danger” or “dangerous” along the trail?

4. Stop and catch your breath at a bench about halfway up the trail. Who donated this bench?

5. There’s an overlook at the top with three information panels displayed on a stone wall. What does the middle one say? See visual clue No. 2 for help.

6. Get back in your car — or on your bike — and head down 26th Street to the main entrance of Red Rock Canyon Open Space. Park in the end lot and walk up the Red Rock Canyon Trail. Leave the trail at a junction on the right after 0.15 miles (visual clue No. 3), then walk around rocks and through a clearing. How much water is in the lower pond?

7. Go back to the main trail and through a gate to a stone pavilion. When was it dedicated?

8. Walk around the pavilion and down to the upper pond. Is there water in it? For more on these ponds and the effort by the Friends of Red Rock Canyon to restore them, visit redrockcanyonopenspace.org.

9. Head back to your car and drive west on Colorado Avenue into Manitou Springs. Turn right on Garden of the Gods Place, right on El Paso Boulevard and left onto Garden Drive. Enter the park. All this sleuthing might have made you thirsty, so stop at the Garden of the Gods Trading Post for a drink. While there, check the price of a rubber tomahawk, which you’ll find in a silver bucket. How much for this item?

10. Head around the park to parking lot 7. Follow the paved trail past a sign. Who was Paul Cimino?

11. Follow the paved trail to your right (visual clue No. 4). Enter a clearing with a sign displaying the names of the various rock formations. What is the formation to your left called? See visual clue No. 5.

12. Walk into the central part of the park, where a large plaque can be found in a rock wall. What was the wish expressed by the person who gave the park to the city? See visual clue No. 6.

13. Leave Garden of the Gods and head to Pulpit Rock Open Space, a small park near North Nevada Avenue and Interstate 25 with a high, rocky bluff as its centerpiece. According to a sign at the trailhead, what group has adopted the open space?

14. Follow the wide trail into the valley, across a bridge and turn right at a junction. Pass a fire hydrant on the left and power lines on the right, then dip into a gully. There’s a sign about 10 feet off the trail to your right. What does it say?

15. Leave the main trail on a dirt path to the left (visual clue No. 7), then take a quick right and head uphill. The trail gets steep, so older or younger hikers can take a picture from here. Otherwise, climb the final stretch to the top of Pulpit Rock and send us your best picture. The last few feet involve steep scrambling so only the sure-footed should try.

16. Catch your breath and return to the parking lot. Drive down Nevada Avenue to Fillmore Street, then east to Paseo Road. Turn left and head into Palmer Park. Turn right into the South Cañon picnic area and park at the end of the road. Walk east up a trail that begins with a line of boulders (visual clue No. 8). This question is a freebie — how are you enjoying our scavenger hunt so far?

17. Turn right at the Grandview Trail and walk a few minutes. Describe the cool rock formations you’ll see on your left. See visual clue No. 9.

18. Turn right on the Cheyenne Trail and, after a few more minutes, you’ll see a clearing down and to the right. What do you see glimmering in the sun in the valley below? See visual clue No. 10.

19. Backtrack to the Grandview Trail and follow it to the right as it winds to the Grandview Overlook, possibly the best spot to watch the sun set in Colorado Springs. Snap a picture and drink in the views of this gorgeous city we call home. You now have completed the scavenger hunt. Send us the answers and photos by Nov. 29 to enter to win some great prizes.