About Helen Hunt Falls
Helen Hunt Falls was our introduction to the waterfalls in the Colorado Springs area, and it was quite easy to visit. It was essentially a modestly-sized two-segment cascade on North Cheyenne Creek dropping about 36ft that was easily seen from the parking lot along the main road in North Cheyenne Canyon Park (also spelled North Cheyenne Cañon Park; see directions below). There was a visitor center building there, but I’d imagine that it was open seasonally as it wasn’t open during our visit in late March 2017. Given how easy this visit was, our daughter had quite a bit of fun playing near the water at the base of the falls as well as interacting with some locals visiting with their dogs.
While it was easy to think of the name of this falls in terms of the actress Helen Hunt (who acted in the sitcom Mad About You
During our visit, North Cheyenne Creek seemed to have fairly average to less-than-average flow, which was surprising to us considering it was early Spring. Even though most of California had been getting much higher than average rainfall in the Winter, apparently this part of the Rocky Mountains didn’t get as much of that precipitation that we were getting hit with. Thus, I’d imagine had the area not gotten any more precipitation the falls could go dry in the Summer once the snow pack had been depleted.
Our visit only took us less than 30 minutes, which encompassed lingering around the base of the falls and hiking up to the bridge above the falls. Julie talked me out of doing the Silver Cascades Trail further beyond the top of Helen Hunt Falls as we were short on time (though I did see an attractive cascade a short distance further upstream). According to the signs, that trail was said to be about 1/3-mile in each direction with about 275ft of elevation gain (which can hit you if you’re not already acclimated to the elevation of Colorado Springs at about 6,000ft and the dry climate).
While there were many ways to drive to Helen Hunt Falls from various spots in the Colorado Springs area, we’ll just describe the way we did it from the I-25 exit at Tejon Street (exit 140) a few miles south of downtown Colorado Springs. Once we got off the freeway and reached the next traffic light at the off-ramp, we then turned right and followed Tejon Street for about 0.4 miles to its junction with West Cheyenne Blvd, where we kept right and followed this street for about 2.4 miles to its intersection with North Cheyenne Canyon Road (right across from the North Cheyenne Canyon Visitor Center). We then turned right to go onto North Cheyenne Canyon Road and followed this narrower road for about 2.6 miles to the obvious parking lot in front of the visitor center, where the waterfall could clearly be seen already. Overall, this drive took us about 20-25 minutes to get from the Rockrimmon Blvd ramps along the I-25 (near the Hyatt House where we stayed) to this part of North Cheyenne Canyon Park.
For further context, Colorado Springs was about 71 miles (or over an hour drive without traffic) south of Denver along the I-25, or about 97 miles (around 90 minutes drive) south of Boulder.
Find A Place To Stay
Checking out the front of the falls from all along the viewing area getting all the way up to the falls itself
Checking out the very top of the falls from the bridge then walking all the way down to the main viewing area while examining the falls from all sorts of different angles
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
