Colorado Springs is the easiest big-scenery elopement in the state. Garden of the Gods is a city park, open from 5 a.m., free to enter and free to marry in, with Pikes Peak behind 300-foot sandstone fins. Add a mild climate at 6,000 feet, an airport twenty minutes away and a spa town next door in Manitou, and a Tuesday-morning elopement can be planned in a month.
Why elope here
The region trades alpine drama for accessibility. No permit for a small ceremony at Garden of the Gods, a January wedding without snowshoes, and overlooks a grandparent can reach without a hike. The cost is crowds: the park draws millions of visitors a year, and by 9 a.m. on a summer Saturday the main loop is a parade. Sunrise, weekdays and the shoulder months fix most of that.
Best ceremony spots
Garden of the Gods, Chuckwagon Plaza. The paved plaza beside the Chuckwagon pavilion (older guides call it Jaycee Plaza) with the Kissing Camels and Pikes Peak lined up behind you. Capacity 40, the largest of the park’s six wedding areas, and fully accessible from the central lot.
Garden of the Gods, Sentinel Plaza and Three Graces Plaza. Two smaller paved overlooks, each capped at 25 people, with the spires close enough to touch the light. Three Graces faces the thin, elegant fins on the park’s south end and is the quieter of the two.
Garden of the Gods, High Point. The overlook at parking lot 9 on the park’s southwest edge, capacity 20, with the whole garden spread below and the peak behind it. The best sunrise view in the park and the easiest spot to keep a small group together.
Garden of the Gods, Scotsman and South Spring Canyon picnic areas. Capacity 20 and 30, and the only two places in the park where a picnic afterward is allowed. No alcohol anywhere in the park.
North Cheyenne Cañon Park. A city park on the south side of town with Helen Hunt Falls, granite walls and a shaded canyon road. Under the same city rules as any neighborhood park: fewer than 50 people and no decor means no reservation. Parking at the falls is tight by mid-morning.
Cheyenne Mountain and Mueller state parks. Cheyenne Mountain’s Prairie Falcon amphitheater seats 160 below the mountain; Mueller, an hour west near Divide, is aspen meadows at 9,500 feet. Both require a special activity agreement for every wedding.
Permits and rules
The City of Colorado Springs keeps it simple. At Garden of the Gods there is no charge and no reservation for the six wedding areas, which are first come, first served, and the city asks you to respect the posted capacities. Ceremonies must be small and brief, with no decorations, tables, tents, arches or trellises; chairs only for guests who need them; nothing thrown or released; no amplified sound; no blocking of trails or parking; and other visitors will be at the same spot. Professional planners working in the park need a commercial use permit. Both the city’s weddings-in-parks page and the Garden of the Gods visitor center page list the rules and capacities.
In every other city park, a ceremony of fewer than 50 people with no chairs or decor needs no reservation at all. Fifty or more people, or any setup, means renting a pavilion (the city quotes $100 to $250 for a full day) or applying for a special event permit. Amplified sound anywhere requires a noise hardship permit from the police department. One important exception: weddings are not allowed at Red Rock Canyon Open Space or the city’s other conservation-easement open spaces, so admire it on a hike and marry elsewhere.
Pikes Peak itself is run by the city as Pikes Peak America’s Mountain, with timed-entry reservations on the highway in summer; ceremonies along the road are arranged with that office, not the parks department. State parks require a special activity agreement and a vehicle pass; see Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Your marriage license
Any Colorado county clerk can issue a license that works statewide. You both appear with photo ID (a notarized absentee affidavit covers a partner who cannot), the fee is $30, there is no waiting period, blood test or witness requirement, and under C.R.S. 14-2-109 you may solemnize your own marriage. Use the license within 35 days and return the signed certificate to the issuing clerk within 63 days of the ceremony.
The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder issues marriage licenses only at its main office, 1675 W. Garden of the Gods Rd., on weekdays and at the North office on Union Blvd. on Saturday mornings; the other branches do not. Our Colorado Springs marriage license guide has the hours, ID list and return rules. If you are marrying at Mueller or anywhere near Woodland Park, the Teller County Clerk is in Cripple Creek with a Woodland Park branch. The statewide rules are spelled out on any clerk’s page, such as Larimer County’s.
When to go
December through February is surprisingly workable: sunny most days, highs in the 40s, occasional snow that melts in a day, and a nearly empty park at sunrise. Pack a coat for the wind.
March and April bring the wettest snow of the year, often a foot at a time, then 60-degree days a week later. Flexible dates win.
May and early June are green and mild, with wildflowers on the park’s trails and tolerable crowds before school lets out.
July and August are hot by noon, with thunderstorms and hail rolling off the peak most afternoons. The park’s free summer shuttle runs because the lots fill. Sunrise is non-negotiable.
September and October are the best months: dry, golden light, cottonwoods turning in the canyons, aspens up at Mueller in late September, and cool mornings.
November is quiet and brown, with long shadows and no crowds.
Sunrise or sunset, and a sample day
Sunrise is the whole game at Garden of the Gods. The rocks face east, the first light turns them a deep orange with the peak glowing behind, and the park is yours until about 8 a.m. Sunset backlights the fins and silhouettes the peak, which is beautiful but harder to photograph, and it is when everyone else shows up.
A weekday in early October:
- 5:15 a.m. Hair and makeup in Manitou Springs or Old Colorado City.
- 6:30 a.m. Park at High Point. Walk to the overlook as the sky lightens.
- 7:05 a.m. Sunrise on the fins. Vows with the garden below you.
- 7:45 a.m. Portraits at Chuckwagon Plaza and the Siamese Twins trail.
- 9:30 a.m. Breakfast in Manitou, then an afternoon at the hot springs or the cog railway.
- 6:00 p.m. Dinner at a venue in Old Colorado City that you booked ahead.
Beyond the Garden, the city also books ceremony sites on Pikes Peak, rents a pavilion in North Cheyenne Cañon, and some popular photo spots do not allow weddings at all. Our guide to Colorado Springs ceremony sites beyond Garden of the Gods sorts out who manages what.
Where to stay
Manitou Springs sits at the park’s west gate with mineral springs, old inns and a walkable main street. Old Colorado City and downtown Colorado Springs have the most restaurants and the city’s boutique hotels. Woodland Park and Green Mountain Falls, up Ute Pass, trade convenience for pines and cooler nights and put you close to Mueller.
Getting there
Colorado Springs Airport is twenty minutes from Garden of the Gods, with direct flights from most major hubs. Denver International is about 85 miles and an hour and a half north on I-25, often cheaper. You will want a car; the park is five miles west of downtown, and Pikes Peak Highway and Mueller are 30 to 60 minutes beyond.
Vendors in this region
Colorado Springs has a deep bench of vendors who shoot Garden of the Gods every week and know which plaza is empty at 6:40 a.m. Browse everyone based in Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak, then start with photographers, officiants, florists who build hand-held bouquets since nothing can be staged, hair and makeup, planners for the state park paperwork, and venues for dinner.
Pick your plaza, pick a sunrise, and heart the vendors you want to talk to. Your free planner keeps the quotes, the license window and the day’s timeline in one place. Start My Planner.
