I Love Manitou Springs the fountains
The FountainsAll ten, and how to walk them
Manitou has ten public mineral fountains, strung along about nine-tenths of a mile of canyon. Every one of them is free, runs year-round, and is meant to be drunk — not all to the same taste, but all drinkable. Six sit within 213 metres of one another, Soda and Navajo barely twenty-six metres apart; the other four are worth the walk.
Iron Springbold · iron
Tastes like a handrail. Badge of honor.
Drilled 1910 · iron-rich (chalybeate)
Walk me thereUte Chief Spring
Off on its own up the canyon — 568 m from the nearest other fountain, and the only one you make a separate trip for.
Tasting note still to be written.
Walk me thereTwin Springsoda · sweet
The gentle one — locals' lemonade water. Start here.
Drilled 1920s · lithium-touched
Walk me thereStratton Springeffervescent
Fizzes like it's proud of itself.
Drilled 1936 · 200+ ft down
Walk me thereCheyenne Springsweet soda
The postcard spring — fill a jug like grandma.
Natural · ~a mile down, 20,000+ yrs
Walk me thereWheeler Springlight · crisp
The polite handshake — easy for skeptics.
Drilled 1920 · copper-tinged soda
Walk me thereSoda Spring
Twenty-six metres from Navajo — the closest pair of fountains in town, and the park is named after it.
Tasting note still to be written.
Walk me thereShoshone Springbrave
The dare — strong mineral "character."
Natural · the most mineral-heavy of them
Walk me there
Drinking from them
All ten are public and all ten are drinkable. They do not taste alike — the iron one tastes like a handrail and that is the point — so the honest advice is to start sweet at Twin and work up to Shoshone. Bring a bottle; a jug if you are serious.
Two of the ten, Soda and Ute Chief, have no tasting note here yet. They are on the map because their positions are known and they are drinkable; the description is owed rather than guessed.