Drink your way round eight naturally carbonated mineral springs
Eight free fountains, eight tastes
Eight public drinking fountains fed by naturally carbonated mineral springs, scattered through a walkable historic town at the foot of Pikes Peak.
Why it's unique
The town is named for its springs, and unusually you can still drink from all of them. Eight public fountains sit along the streets, each fed from a different point in the same karst aquifer and each carrying a different mineral load, so the water genuinely tastes different from one to the next. The carbonation is natural rather than added.
What makes this an experience rather than a landmark is that it is a circuit you walk and taste your way around, free, with a chart telling you what is in each one. Most towns built on mineral water long ago put it behind a spa turnstile. Here the fountains are on the pavement and nobody stops you filling a cup.
Before you go
Start at the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau at 354 Manitou Ave and pick up the map and the mineral chart. The fountains are not signposted the way you would expect and most visitors find two or three by accident and miss the rest entirely.
Shoshone has the heaviest mineral content and comes out of the ground warmest, around 70F, and it is the one people either love or pour away. If you want a gentler introduction, start at Cheyenne. A collapsible steel cup is $3 at the Visitors Bureau, or two for $5, and the money goes to the Mineral Springs Foundation that keeps the fountains running.