This area is often referred to as the banana-belt of southern Colorado because of its mild temperatures in the summer and winter and earlier springs and later falls than Colorado Springs and other areas to the north. Summer temperatures typically top out in the eighties and winters rarely bring significant snowfall.

Land within the Highlands was a part of Spencer Penroses original ranch and week-end getaway organized in the early 1900s. When the Ranch property was first commercially developed for homes in the 1990s, wild cattle were still occasionally found roaming the hills in the Ranch. Access to over 35,000 acres of National wildlife area including Beaver Creek and Phantom Canyon is available to residents through a private access point off the back of the Ranch. Dilapidated cabins from decades ago, a year-round stream with a secret waterfall and miles upon miles of hiking are available to residents of the Ranch

The Nature Conservancy Aiken Canyon, over 1,600 acres of pristine nature preserve also borders the Ranch. Over 100 species of birds were catalogued in the area by Charles Aiken, a U.S. surveyor, taxidermist, and collector in the 1870s. It was named in honor of Charles Edward Howard Aiken (1850-1936), who grew up in Vermont and Chicago. After Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871, he relocated to Colorado with his family, where they ran a sheep ranch a few miles south of the future preserve. Charles, a bird collector since a young age, had been apprenticed to a taxidermist in Chicago, and continued this profession in Colorado. As was common in the days before widespread photography and use of binoculars, the sad method to learn about birds was to shoot and stuff them.