Qualla: Cave of the Winds https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/general-term-all-secon.jpg Qualla: Cave of the Winds https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado Cave of the Winds: Introduction https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two brothers noticed their candle flames bending sideways. John and George Pickett had been hiking through Williams Canyon in the summer of 1880, led by their church pastor, when they ducked into a small shelter cave and watched the light dance. Wind was blowing from a crack in the rock. They crawled through the crevice and emerged into a chamber that had been waiting half a billion years to be found. Within days, the Reverend Roselle T. Cross had written up the discovery in his church newsletter, and the Colorado Springs Gazette reprinted the story on July 2, 1880. The Colorado Encyclopedia later noted that Cross's account was "remarkably free of the florid Victorian hyperbole typical of most cave descriptions of that time" -- a refreshing restraint for a man who had just stumbled into one of Colorado's hidden wonders.

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Image: Peter Fitzgerald | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cave of the Winds: Written in Stone by Ancient Seas https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit Xnatedawgx, CC BY-SA 3.0. The story of Cave of the Winds begins roughly 500 million years ago during the Ordovician period, when warm shallow seas covered the Pikes Peak region. Shell creatures lived and died by the millions, their remains accumulating on the sea floor and compressing over the ages into t...

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Image: Xnatedawgx | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-written-in-stone-by-ancient-seas.mp3 0:06 2 full Cave of the Winds: The Crystals That Defy Gravity https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit James St. John, CC BY 2.0. The cave's most celebrated treasure is a room called Silent Splendor, discovered in 1984. Inside, rare crystalline formations called helictites twist and curl in directions that seem to ignore every law of physics. Described in shapes ranging from butterflies to curly fries to "c...

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Image: James St. John | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-the-crystals-that-defy-gravity.mp3 0:06 3 full Cave of the Winds: Canopy Hall and the Mob That Followed https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit James St. John, CC BY 2.0. In that same discovery year of 1880, a stonecutter from Ohio named George Washington Snider arrived in Colorado seeking his fortune. Snider excavated deeper into what was then called the Williams Canyon caves and broke through into Canopy Hall -- a chamber nearly 200 feet long, d...

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Image: James St. John | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-canopy-hall-and-the-mob-that-followed.mp3 0:06 4 full Cave of the Winds: A Spirit of the Wind https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit (WT-en) WineCountryInn at English Wikivoyage, Public domain. Both the Apache and Ute peoples knew about the cave long before the Pickett brothers crawled through that crevice. According to Apache legend, the cave was the home of a Great Spirit of the Wind -- a belief that gave the place its enduring name. Later additions to the cave's tour...

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Image: (WT-en) WineCountryInn at English Wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-a-spirit-of-the-wind.mp3 0:06 5 full Cave of the Winds: Approaching from the Air https://qualla.com/cave-of-the-winds-colorado/ Photo credit Chris Lott from Fairbanks, USA, CC BY 2.0. Cave of the Winds sits just west of Colorado Springs along U.S. Highway 24, near the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and within the broader Pikes Peak region. From the air, Williams Canyon cuts a visible notch into the foothills at approximately 38.87 degrees north latitude and 104.92 de...

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Image: Chris Lott from Fairbanks, USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/w/v/m/cave-of-the-winds-colorado-wp/9wvm-cave-of-the-winds-approaching-from-the-air.mp3 0:06 6 full