Manitou Springs, Colorado

Some places make you want to disappear into the wilderness.

Manitou Springs makes you want to park the car and wander around for a while.

Tucked against the mountains just outside Colorado Springs, Manitou is colorful, quirky, historic, a little weird, and exactly the kind of place where finding a guy playing a piano on the sidewalk somehow doesn't seem all that unusual.

I only spent a day there, walking the main drag, wandering in and out of shops, and seeing what there was to see. It wasn't one of those trips with a packed itinerary or some huge adventure waiting at the end. We just explored.

And honestly, that's part of what I liked about it.

There are places you remember because of the big thing you did there. The mountain you climbed. The road you drove. The view that made you pull over.

Then there are places you remember because of the little things.

Like discovering that Manitou Springs apparently really loves dogs.

I was inside one of the shops while my son waited outside with Chase and Indie. Chase, my roughly 90-pound German Shepherd who has some anxiety issues and very strong opinions about being left out of things, started whining because he wanted to come inside.

Absolutely not.

It was a small, tight little shop full of things that a 90-pound anxious German Shepherd could very easily knock over. I wasn't about to bring him in.

The guy working there had other ideas.

He practically insisted that I bring Chase inside. If he broke something, he broke something.

So in came the giant dog.

That little interaction probably tells you more about how Manitou felt to me than anything else I could write about it.

It's the kind of town that rewards wandering. Old buildings, local shops, flowers spilling over walls, mountain-town character everywhere you look, and enough unexpected little details to keep you wondering what you'll find around the next corner.

Maybe it's a shopkeeper who couldn't care less if your giant dog knocks something over.

Maybe it's a guy playing a piano on the sidewalk.

I don't have a dramatic Manitou story. I didn't conquer anything. I didn't have some life-changing revelation.

I spent a day walking around a strange little Colorado mountain town with my kid and my dogs, and years later, I still remember how much I liked it.

Sometimes that's enough.

Brought Home From the Back Roads

The Historic Manitou Springs Candle was inspired by that day and by the character of a town that doesn't seem particularly interested in being like anywhere else.

It's a small piece of Manitou for the days when you're stuck living the life you're supposed to be living and would much rather be wandering around somewhere in the mountains.

Shop the Historic Manitou Springs Candle →

For the life you'd rather be living.