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!

Day 1, continued--Colorado Springs and Focus On the Family

August 1, 2015

(click the pictures to see them larger)

Calhan, CO to Colorado Springs, CO

(Please forgive me for the delay in this post. I've been working two jobs for the past month, and things have been pretty crazy. Now I'm down to one job and I can catch up on the posts!)

After leaving Paint Mines Interpretive Park, it was about 30-45 minutes into Colorado Springs. Here's a closer picture of the mountains seen in our "Driving" post.

"Mountains in view: Oh the Joy!" (to paraphrase Lewis & Clark)

One of the things E and I knew we had to do when we got out to Colorado Springs was visit the Focus On the Family headquarters! We grew up listening to Adventures in Odyssey every weekday evening and Saturday morning. Our routines revolved around this radio program for years, until the show started changing... The newest episodes really just aren't the same as the ones we grew up with.

Anyway...

At the mention of "Colorado Springs," my first thought is the Focus On the Family address: "Colorado Springs, Colorado, eight-zero-nine-nine-five. Or in Canada write to, Box Ninety-Eight Hundred, Vancouver BC, V6B 4G3"--the address we heard recited nightly by their chipper hostess, Chris. So of course, we made a point to visit the Focus On the Family Headquarters!

We rode the famous 3-storey slide--I did it twice. :) We were by far the oldest riders. The rest were children who barely passed our elbows...

Downstairs we found ourselves in McAllister Park!

Everyone's favorite detective: Harlow Doyle, Puh-rivate Eye

During our explorations, we stepped around the corner to discover....

NARNIA!

El and I did not just listen to Adventures in Odyssey. No, we also listened to cassette tapes Mom recorded of Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre production of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." 

The lovely KT

The elevator is actually the Imagination Station. It appeared to be malfunctioning, though, and we did not "zoop" away on any fantastic adventures.

 And of course we stopped at Whit's End's ice cream shoppe for Wod-Fam-Choc-Sods.

The gift shop is worth perusing as well. We walked away with a mug, t-shirts (KT has a t-shirt obsession...), books, postcards, nicknacks...

It was a fun visit. :) 

Check my other blog in the next day or two for a video of my A-Bend-A-Go slide ride!

--Kiwi

Day 1--Paint Mines Interpretive Park

August 1, 2015
(click the pictures to see them larger!)

We arrived in Calhan, Colorado shortly after 11:00 am. It was HOT.

Paint Mines Interpretive Park is located just south of the small town of Calhan. I compare it to the Badlands in South Dakota, only much smaller, and possibly more colorful.

We parked at the second parking lot and hiked down into the canyon from there. Some stories of the location claimed that the trail there is very steep. I suppose that is true, but don't let that discourage you! It certainly was not unmanageable! The first parking lot has nice trails, but you must walk farther to get to the canyon area.

From the parking lot, looking down.

KT and Mainiac, exploring.

Fairy Trumpet Flowers, or  Ipomopsis aggregata

We made good use of the timer on my camera!

Please visit my other blog, www.quirkykiwifruit.blogspot.com, for pictures as well! The posts will be similar, but I'm changing a few of the pictures on each.

Colorado Day 1: Driving

Evening 1--July 31, 2015
Day 1--August 1, 2015
Wisconsin to Bettendorf, Iowa
Bettendorf, Iowa to Calhan, Colorado

We left the house right on schedule: 6:30 pm! ....And then we had to stop 20 minutes down the road. Mainiac had accidentally left her phone, drivers license, and debit card in her family's car, and we needed to pick that up before heading out of state. Thankfully we discovered it was missing before we made it to Colorado!
Driving west into the sunset, we watched the rear-view mirror as a "blue moon" rose behind us. A blue moon, according to Wikipedia, is

"a second full moon in a month of the common calendar."

KT and El took the first driving/navigating shift, then we paused at my grandparents' house long enough to say hello, change into comfy clothes, and pick up the GPS.
I took the next leg of the journey and made it almost to Council Bluffs. Mainiac made a wonderful navigator, and kept me awake with funny stories, trivia pulled up on her phone (thank goodness for 3G!), and classic Newsboys/Michael W. Smith sing-alongs. Sometime between 1 and 2 AM I realized that driving any further would be a very unwise decision, so we switched out with El and KT and slept until we reached Kearney, Nebraska.

Blue Moon around 2-3:00 am.

Blue moon around 6:00am, when we stopped for gas in Kearney

From Kearney we dropped down into Kansas on a road parallel to the railroad, taking us through small towns such as Long Island and Funk.

Some might think that the drive through Kansas would be boring, since the road is so flat and straight, but I thought it was beautiful. We drove through fields of sunflowers and over the west end of beautiful Harlan County Lake.
Driving through Kansas might have been my favorite drive of the trip. Okay, maybe not The Favorite. The Peak-to-Peak Highway and Trail Ridge Road both had some fantastic scenery! But this was pretty and quiet and peaceful.

Harlan County Lake

Harlan County Lake

Abandoned house close to the Colorado border

We're here!! (That's not us.)

Driving through wind turbine country!

Allow me to introduce the Colorado Crew!

El, back there reading

Mainiac, living up to her name. ;) I think we were singing along to Fiddler on the Roof...

There's me, Kiwi!

KT finally fell asleep. (she doesn't sleep well in cars.)

We had fun with wipe-off markers. 

First glimpse of mountains!

Next post: Paint Mines Interpretive Park and maybe Focus on the Family, too.