We’re not in Kansas anymore!

On Tuesday, we continued our journey West, crossing into Colorado and then heading Southwest to Colorado Springs. I’ve only spent a little time in Denver, and have always been so fascinated by the beauty of Colorado, so we’ll actually be spending four whole days here! Just enough time to get a taste of this part of the state and get some ideas for a future trip!

We are camping at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, and it’s absolutely beautiful. You can’t beat the views, the sites are large, there are full hookups & concrete pads (that are level!)…it’s basically perfect! Colorado Springs’ elevation is over 6,300 feet (higher than the “mile-high” city of Denver), so we knew our bodies would need to acclimate to the altitude.

Our first stop on Wednesday was at Garden of the Gods. It’s a city park but the scenery rivals that of some National Parks! The area got its name from a surveyor who declared it “a fit place for the Gods to assemble” and named it “Garden of the Gods”. The land was purchased back in the late 1800s by a railroad magnate; after his death, the 480-acre park was given to the city of Colorado Springs with the condition that it remain free to the public. The rock formations are simply amazing – most are red, but there’s some variety, too. There’s a wonderful trail that goes through the rocks so you are among them and looking up at the massive formations. We spent quite a bit of time wandering through, and the morning light was beautiful on the rocks.

Once we finished there, we took the scenic drive through the rest of the park and enjoyed our lunch in the midst of all this natural beauty. After lunch, I ventured out on a moderate hike up to “Siamese Twins”. It’s an uphill climb to twin rocks, and the real treat is that there’s a ‘window’ in those rocks that perfectly frames nearby Pikes Peak. It was absolutely worth the climb to have those views!

We stopped at Balanced Rock which was probably the most crowded area of the park – another very cool and unique formation!

From Garden of the Gods, we drove to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings which were fascinating! The dwellings are comprised of stones from 25 actual dwellings that were slated for destruction; the stones were carefully removed and reconstructed at this site, and opened to the public in 1907. It was so interesting to walk through and learn about how the Pueblo lived.

We did a quick drive thru the Red Rock Canyon Open Space to enjoy more massive red rock formations, and then headed back to the campground after a wonderful day!

Our campground is adjacent to Fort Carson Army base, and on several occasions, we could hear the bugler playing Reveille or Taps to start or end the day. Very cool! The road behind our campground is “Norad Road”, which leads to the alternate command center for NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) – they’re the ones who track Santa’s journey on Christmas Eve! There are military installations all around us!

Thursday was a day for us to reach new heights…we went to the top of Pikes Peak which sits at 14,115 feet above sea level. We decided that the Cog Railway was our best option for reaching the top…let someone else do the driving so we could enjoy the scenery! The cog railway has been taking people to the top since 1891 and is a really memorable experience. It takes about an hour to make the nearly 8,000-foot climb from Manitou Springs to the summit. Last time we were near that altitude was in the French Alps in 2016, and we can remember some mild altitude sickness there, so we were prepared! We brought some canned oxygen to inhale as needed, and of course, we brought layers of clothes, gloves, and hats – it was about 70 degrees at the base, and we knew it would be about 40 degrees cooler at the top.

Our trip was timed based on the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, but as it turned out, we hit peak season for the Aspen trees in Colorado – our entire ride on the Cog Railway was surrounded by the amazing gold leaves. The conductor said he thought this was probably the best day for the fall colors! Absolutely stunning and something I’ve always wanted to see! Honestly though, the leaves in Upstate New York are better because there are so many different colors.

We reached the top, bundled up, and headed out to walk around the summit and enjoy the panoramic views of Colorado and five other states. Did you know that the view from Pikes Peak inspired “America the Beautiful”? In 1895, Katharine Lee Bates journeyed to the top and wrote the poem that ultimately became “America the Beautiful”. “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain…” Because of this, Pikes Peak is referred to as “America’s Mountain”

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we won’t soon forget!

On Friday, we shifted from the natural wonders of Colorado to the thrill of the Olympics! Colorado Springs is home to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, so we headed there to take a tour. It was so cool to see the amazing facilities that our nation’s best athletes use to train and prepare for the Olympics. The high altitude adds to the training benefits. It was just the two of us and our tour guide, Ryan, and he showed us the weight room, gyms, pool, shooting range, cafeteria, and so much more! We even got to meet and talk to two Olympic medalist wrestlers, J’Den Cox and Adeline Gray.

Our next stop was the nearby US Olympic & Paralympic Museum. We’ve been to The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Lake Placid Olympic Museum, and Utah Olympic Park in Park City, so we thought this would be an interesting addition to our Olympic experiences. What an incredible museum! It is only about five years old, and is full of interactive experiences where you can test your speed, accuracy, and more against that of Olympic athletes. And, of course, the artifacts are fantastic! They have one of the only two complete collections of Olympic Torches (the other being in Switzerland), and an amazing collection of Olympic medals. Plus, they have so many items worn & used by athletes over the years. We were really impressed, and so glad we were able to visit!

Our final stop on Friday was Helen Hunt Falls, a beautiful waterfall along Cheyenne Creek. Helen Hunt was a poet and author who advocated for better treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. Government back in the mid-1800s. We haven’t seen much water in this very dry part of the country, so the waterfall was a real treat!

Friday night brought quite a bit of wind to the campground – never fun, especially when you’re in a trailer, but fortunately we were safe!

On Saturday, we drove about 80 miles North toward Denver, to Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, and met up with a friend who lives nearby; Mark and I worked with her at Kodak back in the 90s and early 2000s. We walked around the massive amphitheatre that seats over 9,500 people and climbed the 193 steps to the top. The views are amazing, and according to my friend, the acoustics are excellent and the entire concert experience is pretty cool! The amphitheatre was actually built by the CCC in the 1930s. In the visitor center, there’s a display listing every show that’s been performed there since it opened in 1941, and it’s a really impressive list of artists, including The Beatles, U2, and Bruce Springsteen. I’d love to experience a concert there someday – add it to the list!

We enjoyed a nice lunch with friends, and started the journey back to Colorado Springs. Overall, our weather this trip has been really nice but it was a weird trip back; it started to rain, and the air is so dry in that area that you can actually see the rain in the air. The mountains all just became white and gray shadows. Still really pretty!

On Sunday, we packed up to leave Colorado Springs. I don’t usually feel like I’ll miss a campground after we leave, but I will miss this one. The views and the entire setting were just so serene and beautiful.

Our drive South on I-25 was pretty short and easy, taking us just over the border to Raton, New Mexico…my 46^th state! WooHoo! The scenery was beautiful – so much color and variety in the landscape. We’re staying at a KOA and it’s clearly a one-night stopover for most people, as we watched lots of RVs arrive on Sunday and leave on Monday. We were a long-term guest, staying for TWO nights.

Monday was a quiet day – projects and stuff around the trailer in the morning, and then we ventured out for a bit in the afternoon. We went to Capulin Volcano National Monument, about 30 miles away, and we got a nice view of the volcano, but unfortunately, due to the government shutdown, the visitor center and the road to the top of the volcano were both closed. Ugh. I hope it’s not a sign of things to come, as we have three National Parks on our itinerary later in October…please reopen by then! It was a scenic drive, and we did see lots of lava rocks scattered by the roadside starting several miles away from the volcano which erupted about 60,000 years ago. It would have been very cool to drive to the top and walk on the crater vent trail…maybe next time we are in Raton!

From there, we went to Sugarite Canyon State Park near Raton. It’s the site of an old coal mine, and there are remnants of the many buildings that existed there for the workers’ camp from 1912 to 1941. It was an interesting hike, especially since the vegetation is so different than what we are used to seeing.

We drove through downtown Raton, which clearly has fallen on hard times, put some gas in the truck (we seem to do that almost every day!), and headed back to the campground. Next stop, Albuquerque and more from “The Land of Enchantment”!