Colorado – Wander the Country with us in our Cougar 2100rk

Garden of the Gods

If you have been following along with our travels, you know that some of my favorites places include red rocks. The red rock formations formed millions a years ago. Originally known as Red Rock Corral. In 1859, a surveyor thought the place would be a good “capital place for a beer garden.” His partner thought it was a good place for gods to gather. Later in 1893 Helen Hunt Jackson officially named the area Garden of the Gods.

Charles Elliot Perkins, established a home in this area with 480 acres. After his death, his family donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 with the provision that it would be a free public park. In 1972, the park became a National Monument.

The park is popular for hiking, biking, rock climbing, and horseback riding. In the summer, there is a free shuttle service with 4 stops around the park. We had a family member who lives in the area drive us around, and even in the off season, parking was difficult.

This is a famous rock formation called balancing rock.

Siamese Twins trail was an easy 1-mile roundtrip with only 150-foot rise. The views were magnificent.

This is such a beautiful park, that I would definelty spend a day or two here to enjoy all parts of the park.

Because of parking, we decided to hike to the Visitor and Nature center to get our ride. It definitely was father than we thought. It never seems to be a straight line forward, but the views were great!

The Royal Gorge Bridge

What is the Royal Gorge you ask? It is the canyon of the Arkansas River located near Canon City, Colorado. The bridge was built in 1929, and at the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the country. It is 956 feet above the river and is 1,260 feet from rim to rim. It took about 7 months to build with the grand opening on Dec. 8, 1921.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit nervous about walking across the bridge. Why? Because you could see through the wooden planks to the river below.

With gaps in the planks and small feet, I was nervous psychologically.

Gorge Fire

On Tuesday June 11, 2013, a fire erupted west of the royal gorge bridge in western Colorado. With high winds, the fire jumped the canyon walls and reached the Royal Gorge Bridge Park. The park was evacuated and everyone was safe, but the majority of the buildings were burned. Of the 360 acres, 90% of the park was destroyed including the playland rides and attractions. The bridge was spared with the exception of roughly 100 planks.

Fourteen months later, the park was reopened with new buildings and the Poma-Leitner Aerial Gondolas, zip-lining, and a sky coaster.

The views are breathtaking above and below the canyon rim.

You can spend the whole day here if you want. It is definitely a must see if you’re in the Colorado Springs area; it’s a short drive to see this fabulous canyon.

Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak, America’s Mountain, is named for Lt. Zebulon Pike who never reached the top. This mountain is 14,115 feet high and you can reach the top in a few ways. The most popular is taking the 3.5 hour round trip cog train ride. The cog train has been traveling up the mountain since 1891. This is the way Autmn and I traveled to the summit. Prices are around $70 to enjoy the ride that was well worth it.

Up toward the top, you have mountains of these rocks.

The views up at the top of the mountain were amazing.

We were told that we have to have donuts up at the top of the mountain. So the first thing we did when we got off the train was go inside to beat the lines to get our donuts. You only have about 40 minutes before you have to get back on the train, and you don’t want to miss the train.

Here is a close up of the 9 mile cog railway.

The next time we go up to Pikes Peak, we will probably drive the 19 miles paved windy road, so we can spend more time up at the top.

After the cog train ride, we walked around Maintou Springs and took in the sites.

The Air Force Academy

We are lucky enough to have a retired Air Force family member to show us around the campus. If you are not as lucky as us, please research the process you have to go through to visit the campus. I don’t think you can just show up and go on the campus. At the entrance we started with some planes on display.

We were able to see some glidder trainings. This was cool to see! This picture doesn’t show it very well though.

We also got to see some cadets from on top of the honor court overlook, and what is interesting is that when they are training, they can only walk on the white lines.

You can also watch the cadet noon formation where you watch the squadrons marching to lunch, weather permitting.

We made the long walk (1/3 mile, but it seemed longer) to the world-famous chapel, but it has been under construction for a few years now. It currently is encased in a box to allow workers to work on the chapel year-round since they get quite cold with snow. The chapel was built is 1962 with 17 spires that are 150 feet tall. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark and the most visited man-made structure in Colorado Springs.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the Colorado Springs area. Stayed tuned as we travel to Kansas and visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

Welcome back! We have been traveling with our daughter and last we left off, we were visiting Monument Valley. Now we are heading towards Colorado Springs. We have family in town that we enjoy spending time with, so we seem to visit every summer for the last 2 years.

Four Corners Monument

Our first stop was to Four Corners; our daughter has never been, and we felt that she needed to see it and she wanted to.

See the line of people waiting to take pictures?

This monument in the only place in the US where you can be in four states at the same time: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. We have been here twice, once with each of our daughters. It is a must do if you’re in the area and expect a line for pictures. Plan to be here for at least an hour if you do want pictures.

Pagosa Springs

We decided to visit a Harvest Host in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Pagosa Springs Colorado. Last year we visited a winery with our daughter and she loved it, so this time, we decided to introduce her to farm life. And oh boy what an experience it was! We were first greeted by a herd of sows and piglets. We had some trouble parking in the pasture because they kept going under the rig and Andrew was trying to get us in a location that was somewhat level on the farm. It was quite the sight to see! I was out of the truck trying to wrangle these cuties out from under the rig.

They were not budging! I had to ask my city daughter to get out of the truck to help me get them moving. We finally got them to move along and we were able to park and we could relax for a bit after a long day of driving.

Then guess who showed up again? The sows seem to make the rounds, so as we were sitting outside, they came by to check on us.

The next morning, we met the owner Brian, and he gave us a tour of the farm. We met the pigs again, cattle, and the dogs. It was such a great experience; we even purchased some fresh pork to enjoy on our travels.

This dog was so big and looked like a wolf.

Andrew is afraid of big dogs, so for him to pet this dog is a big deal.

Wolf Creek Pass

Along the way on highway 160, we stopped at the top of the mountain along the Continental Divide called Wolf Creek Pass. The pass is notable as inspiration of a C.B. McCall song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LzWZYWpOU&pp=ygUZd29sZiBjcmVlayBwYXNzIGN3IG1jY2FsbA%3D%3D

Since Autumn enjoyed this Harvest Host so much, we took her to another Winery in Penrose, Colorado. Once again, this did not disappoint. We met the owner Sean who came out to meet us and invited us inside for wine tasting when we were set up.

The wine tasting was very good and complimented the charcuterie board that we got. I was introduced to a new cheese that has jalepenos in it, and it was so good, so I bought some as well. Sean the owner, gave us a tour of the wine process and really took his time explaining things to us. It was a great night and we would definelty go back!

From Pagosa, we traveled to Yoder, Colorado outside of Colorado Springs. We were thinking of staying 3 nights and Autumn and I could travel the 30 minutes into town to see the sights. Well we got there and it wasn’t quite what we expected or were used to. This was a Boondockers Welcome site which means you pay nothing for your stay except to use their electricity. We decided to only stay 1 night, because of several issues, but the main one was internet. The coverage was not good and Andrew needed to work. So we moved the next morning to a KOA in Colorado Springs.

Cracker Barrel

Since our living situation wasn’t ideal and we needed to kill some time, we went into town to introduce Autumn to Cracker Barrel. Once again, the food was amazing, and we walked away with leftovers.

I’m not a meatloaf kind of person, but it is really good!

While we were waiting for our food, Autumn was introduced to the Peg game. I don’t know how she never new about this travel game, but she was infatuated with the game. So what did she do? She bought the game to figure out how to win.

Of course, we all have to take a shot at the game.

KOA Colorado Springs

We had a nice 2 night visit here. This is a really nice park expecially for families. They have RV spots, tent sites as well as cabin sites. They have planned activities for the kids and a splash park. Autumn said she would have loved this place as a kid.

And just like that, Autumn’s trip was ending. She spent 2 weeks on the road with us and I think she had a blast. This is turning into a tradition of her traveling on the road with us for a few weeks and seeing new things in the country. We took her to the Denver airport and she flew home.

Stay connected as we discuss what to do in Colorado Springs in our next blog. Please hit the subscribe button to follow along.

Category: Colorado

Travel Guide to the Colorado Springs area