Who here doesn’t love a good old-fashioned educational geological cave tour? One designed to inform you on the majesty and mysteries of our planet. How Earth formed the natural wonders that have captivated generations of explorers. Me, that’s who. And if you are reading this blog, you probably feel the same. Rocks, no. Ghosts, yes!
Cue The Cave of the Winds in Manitou Springs. It does offer an educational tour of the caves called “The Discovery Tour.” That tour does, in fact, explain how the caves formed millions of years ago. Or you can just Google that crap and get in on this haunted tour, baby. Which is what I did.
A Beautiful Day For Ghost Hunting
Cave of the Winds is located in Manitou Springs, a short drive west from Colorado Springs. It is open year-round. And since it’s deep underground, the temperature is always the same—cold. 34 bucks gets you 90 minutes in a dark, creepy haunted cave with a tour guide. And I have to say, as someone with a theater degree, I think he did a pretty good job telling these stories. I’d imagine he probably didn’t care about the hauntings on account of having a degree in geology. Yay liberal arts!
The only light allowed is the candlelit lantern given to guests at the start of the tour. That’s obviously just to add more ambiance to the tour. But that leads to my first issue—no flash photography or flashlights allowed. And since I went for ghost hunting, I couldn’t really do any. I couldn’t even try to capture apparitions or orbs. Also, this is why a lot of my photos came out blurry—sorry.
Is The Cave Of The Winds Something Sinister?
First Nation tribes in the area said the caves belonged to the Great Spirit of the Wind. This was due to the natural sound created when wind blew over parts of the caves. It created a horrifying howling sound, and members of the tribe felt the area should be left alone. In 1880, two brothers discovered an entrance to the cave. They quickly went in on a business venture to open the caves as a tourist attraction.
The first part of the haunted tour is backstory on who discovered the caves. I get how they turned this discovery into a business venture is important information and context. However, it took up like 30 to 40 minutes of this tour and had nothing to do with hauntings. Yes, I understand the concept of storytelling. Remember earlier when I flexed my super prestigious theatre arts degree? But if I wrote the script specifically for a haunted ghost tour, I would have cut out all that fat. Just be like, two kids find an entrance into the caves. George Snider hears about it, so he checks it out. He gets a businessman from Texas who is in Colorado looking for a business venture to invest in. They open up a tourist attraction. Boom, there you go—that’s all the backstory you need.
Enter Cave Of The Winds
So we finally get into the cave. The first place we go is a small cavern with a lit lantern in the center. We all circle around it, and the guide tells us that this is Nelly’s lantern and her shrine. We have to introduce ourselves to her by telling her our name and where we’re from as per the ritual. Nelly meets George Snider after he opens up the business. They fall in love, and they get married. She is said to be one of the most active spirits in the cave. Nelly is often seen throughout the cave as an apparition.
The smell of her rose perfume is common. And she is said to extinguish the candles in the lanterns we were given at the start of the tour. So her story is that during her time with George, she became depressed—I’m assuming because she spent most of her waking hours in a dark cave and was not getting enough sun. She received electroshock therapy, scrambling her brain, and eventually killed herself.
Many Tragic Stories Deep In The Cave
The next story told is of two child laborers. They were working in the cave for about a penny a day—ah, the Gilded Age. One day they got lost and were never seen again. Their bodies have never been found. The guide never mentioned any hauntings caused by them; the tour just needed morbid content.
Then we learn about a man, Edward, being “pushed” off a ledge. He broke his neck and died a few days later. His final words were “I was pushed.” His death is attributed to “The Snider Curse.” This theory suggests that all the deaths in the cave were caused by a curse. Maybe those First Nation tribes were on to something.
Dark, Dark And Even Darker
Another area in the cave said to be a paranormal hot spot is Texas Pit—a delicious-sounding but misleading name. Recently, a woman on a tour saw a person in this deep pit. She believed it to be a worker and offered them help out of the pit. And when this “person” looked up at her, they had no eyes.
We then headed to Lovers Lane, said to be the most haunted place in the entire cave system. A body was found in this area—we don’t know whose. But it did have bite marks on it, leading people to believe it was a victim of a cryptid. The guide never mentioned the name of this creature, as local lore suggests saying its name out loud summons it.
Many Ghosts May Appear
Last is the tragic story of a woman named Abigail. She killed herself in the cave after finding out her lover died in a landslide accident. Her apparition is said to even swipe at people as they walk by a slit towards the end of the tour.
So it was a fun tour, but there is no real ghost hunting involved. It’s fun because you walk around a super dark cave system while hearing stories of ghosts. But it felt like the natural venue we were in was doing all the work. Ever seen the movie The Descent? I think it would be a way cooler business model if it was a ghost hunt. A guide takes a group in equipped with EMFs, EVPs, spirit boxes, SLS cameras, etc. I don’t know why this isn’t a more common business, but I would have paid double for that experience. Again, the guide did a great job telling the stories, but I wanted something more real.
Would Recommend, But
I’m not saying Cave of the Winds is a skip—I’m glad I did it. Also, I’m gonna throw shade at the guy from Minnesota. He was obviously scared to be there. The way he handled it was by being loud and trying to get in any comment he thought was funny. And this is something you will have to deal with—going with a group of strangers who don’t like the concept of giving up control. Also, some won’t have proper coping mechanisms. Shut up, dude, I’m trying to listen to the guide tell stories. Not some grown man oozing insecurity thinking he’s funny. Again, I have a theatre degree; I know a thing or two about comedy. Like the fact I have a theatre degree.
Happy Hunting.
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