Pikes Peak Cog Railway, closing, rebuilding, reopening. (Denver, Colorado Springs: house, construction)

[orngkat]

It all depends on where you are moving from. To us, the houses and taxes here are ridiculously cheap.

[Arrby]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

... the current owner, billionaire Phil Anschutz, will try to stick the costs on the public.

Well, you don't become a billionaire spending your own money.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by LHS79

But but but with all of the growth on the North Side there are sooooo many new places to eat!

Sure makes the traffic and high taxes worth it-

Gotta love that (or maybe not)

I've lived in Maryland, Virginia, and now Colorado Springs (not to mention Bangkok)...virtually no one will ever say, "Hey, let's vacation in Colorado Springs for all the restaurants!"

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

I've lived in Maryland, Virginia, and now Colorado Springs (not to mention Bangkok)...virtually no one will ever say, "Hey, let's vacation in Colorado Springs for all the restaurants!"

What, the ****ty chain restaurants up north in Briargate don't leave you drooling?

[Pilot1]

Damn! I hope it stays open. When I lived in CO, I'd take friends, and relatives who visited on the Cog railway. It was a must see along with Garden of the Gods on a visit to the Springs. It's been running since 1891!

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

I'd go as far as to say that it's the only thing that makes COS unique.

I wouldn't say its the only thing, but it is one of the most pre-eminent things that also has the longest history associated with it.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by TCHP

I wouldn't say its the only thing, but it is one of the most pre-eminent things that also has the longest history associated with it.

Well okay, what else would draw an out-of-stater to spend time vacationing in Colorado Springs?

And if you say "Garden Of The Gods", a much better experience in seeing the red rocks is at Roxborough State Park.

[TCHP]

According to the Cos Visitors and Convention Bureau, our top attractions are Pikes Peak, GOG, Manitou Springs, the AFA and the OTC.

But of course, all those things can be found in other locales. There are several cities have a large sentinel mountain nearby. Roxborough is better than GoG for the natural experiecne and of course their is hiking around Red Rock's Amphitheatre. Other cute mountain Victorian towns are scattered through out CO. There are three other service Academies in the US. There are two other Olympic Training Centers. There are even other cog railways that are available in the US and certainly in Europe.

After some consideration, I'll see your "only unique thing" and raise you "there is absolutely nothing unique here at all."

[TCHP]

Okay, here is another one I thought was uniquely found in the Cos area, but, I was wrong. Coffin races. The Emma Crawford races are so out there I thought they had to be unique. Nope.

Nederland has The Frozen Dead Guy Festival in the spring with coffin races, turkey bowling, frozen salmon toss and frozen t-shirt contest.

Napa Valley has the Shaken But Not Stirred coffin races.

Denton TX has coffin races as part of their Days of the Dead Festival.

Gardnerville NV has the Slaughterhouse Lane Coffin Race every October as well.

Although a highlight of the Manitou/Nederland competition is that we now have the travelling Coffin Cup Championship between the top teams from those two places each spring in Nederland. Manitou leads the series 2 years to 1.

So once again, no single thing unique to the Colorado Springs area.

[otowi]

What is unique about Colorado Springs/ El Paso County is that it sits in an amazing location where different biomes/habitats come together. It makes for very unusual combinations of wildlife, plants, etc., that can be seen in this county that usually you'd have to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to see separately. At the south end you have Cholla cactus and pinyon juniper, you've got eastern plains, mountain habitat all the way up to alpine at the summit of Pikes Peak, and the finger of Black Forest and the Palmer Divide is yet another different type. And then the canyon valleys have archaic plants that hearken back to the ice ages but persisted in these tiny fingers. Take some classes in field biology with a local emphasis and you'll start to come to realize how special this place is.