IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO
Few things bond a family like an adventure, and our partners at Children’s Hospital Colorado call exercise the best medicine for many things. Exercise helps improve sleep, stress, mood and concentration, and they say it can treat and prevent some medical problems. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Run to the Shrine, on Sat., May 9 and Sun., May 10, could be the perfect way to combine exercise and bonding by preparing for the race and achieving a goal as a family unit!
Registration for Run to the Shrine is open now at cmzoo.org/run.
Run to the Shrine is the only event where participants can hand-feed a giraffe and walk or run up the side of a mountain! The 4-mile round trip up-and-back course offers breathtaking views of Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, and parts of the Front Range. The unique route winds by Rocky Mountain goats, African lions and African elephants through the Zoo, up to Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun and back into the Zoo.
The evergreen-forested course, with a nearly 1,000-foot elevation gain, is good practice for competitive runners gearing up for summer races and a fun challenge for weekend warriors and families. Run to the Shrine is the only time of the year foot traffic is allowed on the picturesque route through and above the Zoo to the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, and back down.
Participant and spectator tickets are available. Spectators can explore the Zoo from 5 to 8 p.m. when the event ends, but do not get access to Shrine Road.
Registration includes Zoo admission for the evening, a commemorative performance running T-shirt featuring a giraffe, and access to a post-event celebration at the Zoo’s Lodge at Moose Lake.
Run to the Shrine helps CMZoo – one of the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited nonprofit zoos that doesn’t receive any tax support – fund Zoo operations, improvements, animal care and conservation. Run to the Shrine’s 2025 partners, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, Your Colorado Springs Toyota Dealers and Colorado Springs SCHEELS, help make this tradition possible.
