Best Colorado Springs Museums
Create lasting and joyful memories in beautiful Colorado Springs. This City offers several attractions, including parks, museums, zoos, trains, and more. You’ll find no shortage of things to do in Colorado Springs, where adventures range from mild to wild, but one of the best things to do is visit its museums, as they showcase the area’s fascinating history. These are the best museums in Colorado Springs that cannot be missed during your visit:
U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum
Located in Colorado Springs, The 60,000 square feet U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum features 20,000 square feet of galleries, an event space, a state-of-the-art theater, and a cafe. Inspired by Team USA athletes’ energy, unique grace, and inclusive values, the building’s unique spiraling form allows visitors to descend in one common path to the galleries. The building’s structure ensures a way from the entrance to the exit.
Every visitor can tour the premises without worrying about accessibility. When this museum design started, the USA Olympic athletes, paralympic athletes, and people with disabilities were consulted to ensure the most inclusive and authentic experience for every visitor. Today, this museum is considered one of the most accessible museums worldwide. It also received the 2020 Grand Award from the International Association for Universal Design, which noted that this museum “embodied the principles of inclusive design by treating all visitors equally, providing for individual needs in a seamless whole.”
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum
Located downtown in the restored 1903 El Paso County Courthouse, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum preserves the Pikes Peak region’s history and culture, and it features exhibits on the area’s history and some changing exhibits on broad interest topics.
The museum stores nationally significant quilts collections, art pottery from Van Briggle, plus the beautiful art collection of Colorado’s regional landscape. Other collections showcase the Native American influences, the City’s founding, the area’s agricultural and mining history, its early beginnings as a health resort, and its contemporary significance as a military training and operations center.
May Natural History Museum
This is located at the base of the Rocky Mountains between Canon City and Colorado Springs, Colorado Spring’s premier bug museum. Almost any bug you can think of, you’ll find it here. This museum is home to one of the world’s largest private collections of tropical bugs. It has over 7000 bugs, from spiders to thousands of colorful butterflies, to giant tropical insects and moths, all perfectly preserved. Some of the most prevalent bugs among visitors are squishy beetles, deadly scorpions, and gigantic spiders. Family and school groups have been visiting the museum for decades; with its extensive collection, there’s a bug for everybody to enjoy.