Day 2--Garden of the Gods

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Our first visit to Garden of the Gods took place in the evening, after exploring Manitou Springs. The weather was finally cooling off, and it sprinkled a little bit.

I would love to visit G.o.G. earlier in the day and explore more, but we got to go twice in the evenings. The crowds I'd expect on a summer Sunday had moved on, and we were able to explore at our own pace.

E wouldn't stop to take a picture with the iconic Balanced Rock. Sad day.

Mainiac loved the all the space! And the size! So amazing!

Someone worked hard to carve these letters half-way up the cliff!

Kissing Camels from below

KT!

We tried so very many times to take an "all jumping" picture. KT was the only one off the ground in every single picture. We need to work on that...

Kissing Camels from the road

We also saw several mule deer in the park--our first 'exotic' wildlife! (There are only plain old white tailed deer in Wisconsin.)

Day 2--Red Rock Canyon Open Space

August 2, 2015

Red Rock Open Space, Colorado Springs, CO

Sunday morning we visited a church in Colorado Springs. It was a pretty church with a good worship service. Actually, most of the songs we sang there, we also sing at our home church here in Wisconsin. It's amazing to visit a different church and see others praising the same God with the same songs as we do back home. :)

After church we swung back by the hotel to pick up our lunches (and my camera... my $400 camera I left sitting in the breakfast room... OOPS!) and find a nice spot to eat. We settled on Red Rock Canyon Open Space, from which one can see Garden of the Gods.

Upon arrival we studied the map. We just wanted a short hike that would take us to a pretty lunching spot, and then we'd go into Garden of the Gods to do actual hiking. That was the plan, anyway... Our hike ended up taking much of the morning and afternoon, as we wound our way through boulders and interesting vegetation, and avoided being run over by foreign mountain bikers. 

The purple dots show our route, as best as I can remember it. 

This picture was taken right at the start of the trail. One fantastic thing about vacationing in a tourist destination: there are plenty of people willing to take your group pictures! A man on the trail took this one for us, then I was able to return the favor a little while later when we came across them again.

The huge rock slabs are all at odd angles. Quite the sight for this Wisconsin girl!

From the top of the trail we could see Garden of the Gods! (And if you'll note, the layers of rock in G.o.G. are at a different angle from Red Rock Canyon!)

KT snapping away.

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day. It was pretty hot, but oh! the sky was so blue and the rock so red, and any green was SO green! 

On the right you can see the quarry, which created the lake.

 

This tree was the perfect tree to take a photo under. Huge, gorgeous.

If you find yourself in Colorado Springs for a few days, visit Red Rock Canyon Open Space. Garden of the Gods is a more popular destination, (and we enjoyed that too!) but this had slightly fewer people while we were there. You can, however, see more civilization from this park than from G.o.G. I suppose it depends on what you're looking for...

Up next: Garden of the Gods!