The Cog Railway is one of America’s most unique adventures and we are excited to have you experience it. Similarly, the charming town of Manitou Springs is a tourist destination in its own right. Combined, there are over 750,000 visitors each year with the majority arriving during the months of June, July, and August. This, of course, creates an environment where traffic and parking must be carefully coordinated for the benefit of both visitors and residents. We ask for your help in addressing this situation.
In order to make your Cog experience enjoyable and efficient, we strongly encourage you to purchase your tickets in advance on this site by visiting the Purchase Tickets page. By so doing, your day can be more easily and efficiently coordinated through real time text notifications about traffic, parking locations and other important issues. The Cog offers a discounted ticket price for those customers utilizing our electronic ticketing and traffic information system.
Parking at the Cog is $10 and located across the street from our Depot. Parking at the Railway is limited. Off-site parking is less than 10 minutes away from the Cog Depot and shuttle service will be running approximately every 20 minutes. Shuttle service is free to Cog customers who have purchased their tickets in advance.
By purchasing your tickets digitally, the Cog will be able to notify you via text messaging when and where parking is available based upon the time of your departure. There will also be electronic signage at the entry to Ruxton Avenue advising you when availability exists in the Cog Depot parking lot . . . but this should not be the first time you consider traffic and parking efficiencies.
We encourage customers who wish to enjoy Manitou Springs, either before or after visiting the Cog, to utilize the overflow parking located at Hiawatha Gardens, 10 Old Man’s Trail in Manitou Springs.Parking at Hiawatha Gardens is $1 per hour.
A free shuttle is available to bring you directly to your Cog adventure and return you to the Gardens. The shuttle will be scheduled to run approximately every 10-20 minutes and stops running at 8PM.
Due to the amount of vehicle and human traffic on both Ruxton Avenue and at the Cog Depot, we respectfully ask that you not arrive at the Cog Depot more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled departure. This is important to our efforts to accommodate your ability to enjoy your Cog adventure.
Failure to purchase your tickets in advance will complicate things for you, us, and everyone else! Parking will not be available to you at the Cog Depot parking lot and you should not enter Ruxton Avenue in order to visit the Cog Depot with the hope of purchasing a ticket in person. Your ability to choose the train adventure you want and select particular seats will also be minimized.
We have made purchasing advanced tickets intuitive and simple in order to discourage the practice of walk-up ticketing. We respectfully request that you help us accommodate the needs of everyone involved.
