Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Day Two - Colorado Springs (part 1)

On Friday we visited beautiful Colorado Springs!  Did you know Colorado looks like a desert?  That's what we were most surprised about - all the brown.  For some reason, I had always pictured the state as lush and green.  Not so much....but it is still so very, very beautiful!

Garden of the Gods , a city park (can you beleive it?!) in Colorado Springs was simply.....exquisite.  These pictures don't even do it justice.  We had planned on visiting the park, then seeing a few more places as well, but as it turned out, we spent the majority of the day just exploring and marveling over the awesome sights.

At the visitor's center there was this picture pointing out all the rock formations, as well as Pike's Peak in the background.


What we saw was this.....


Beautiful!  But no 14,000 foot mounatin to be seen.

Yes, our visit to Garden of the Gods, in the "desert" of Colorado, was full of rain.


It didn't matter too much.  We still took a trip on a Jeep to hear the history of two of the surrounding towns, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs.  Er, we would have heard the history, but between the rain/hail and the wind flapping our ponchos around in the seat of the open Jeep, we didn't hear much.  Still, it was a nice drive!  Our tour guide was a lady who looked to be about 60 years old!  She had just taken another group 4x4 in the muddy hills.  She looked gleeful - they looked a bit traumatized.


The famous Pike's Peak is there somewhere!

The rain really started coming down after our tour - about the same time jetlag kicked in, so we went to our Bed & Breakfast, the Summit House Inn for some rest and relaxation.....and to find a good place to eat.

By the time the rain stopped we were ready to head out to the park again.


The sun hit the red rock formations, and the clouds made an impressive backdrop.






Our first glimpse of Pike's Peak!







We stayed on the trail mostly stayed on the trail, obeying (for the most part) the signs that warned of certain disablement or death.

There were only a few times we ignored it in the pursuit of more fantastic views.


When the sun started its descent we found a comfy rock to sit and watch.  Pike's Peak eventually came out to join us.

1 comment:

  1. It looks like a fabulous trip so far! Keep having fun, and don't fall off any rocks! :-)

    Can't wait to see you guys and talk about it.

    ReplyDelete