Colorado Rocky Mountain High

Perfect Kayaking

The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Colorado is “majestic”.  We only had a few weeks there, which was only enough time to scratch the surface, but what we did see was just gorgeous.

The Garden of the Gods

The park we stayed in was the Garden of the Gods RV Park.   We knew it was near a State Park with that name..but  we had no idea what it was or how close we were to it.  The whole area is made up of these huge red rocks rising up out of the ground.  Some of them are just protruding right up out of someone’s front yard, but there are also the parks themselves with hiking, biking and climbing trails  The actual “Garden of the Gods Park" was privately owned land at one time, but the man who owned it gave it to the City with the conditions that it be kept up for visitors and they could never charge people to get into it.  I can’t believe I never even knew this place existed, it is simply breathtaking.

Pikes Peak from our Park

I did know that Pike’s Peak existed and was so excited when we could see it from our campground.  Of course I realized later on that it is so prominent, you can see it from almost anywhere in the area.  But there was something so nice about waking up in the morning and doing my “coffee walk” with a view of Pike’s Peak.  We considered taking the motorcycle up to the top, but since it was still covered in snow,we opted to take the truck.
 It had just snowed the day

It was very cold on
top of Pikes Peak

 before and it was very, very cold up there, but the views were certainly worth it.  What I didn’t know was that Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words to America the Beautiful after she spent the day up there.  There is a statue of her in the city looking up at the mountain right near the spot that she sat and wrote the lyrics.  City law now states that no one can ever build a building between the statue and the peak that will block her “view” of the Mountain.  I love learning little tidbits of information like that.

1,000 feet underground

Getting into Colorado we quickly learned that we were in “Gold Rush” country.  There are so many interesting stories out there and the people just love being part of such colorful history (especially the tourism industry).  We decided early on to go to the Molly Kathleen Mine in Cripple Creek.  Although it was obviously a tourist attraction, it seemed like a good place to get a real feel for what went on back in those days.  We didn’t regret our decision at all.   There was so much that we learned  in that mine that made it easier to understand the whole process in other places that we visited.   The first thing they did was squeeze 7 of you into this tiny little elevator that went 1,000 feet under the ground.  It just took a couple of minutes, but by the time you got to the bottom of the mine you felt like the person next to you was no longer a stranger. They did it that way so you could get a feel for what it was like for the miner’s every day -  it was their version of rush hour.  The set up in the mine was great – they did actual demonstrations of what it was like to work down there.  In the early days they were in the dark, or just had candlelight to work by, the noises were incredibly loud and overwhelming (and they couldn't cover their ears like we could)  and the dangers that they faced every day were unbelievable. 

The donkeys of Cripple Creek

 One of the great stories that we learned was the story of the donkeys down in the mines.  When they first started mining, they brought donkeys down in the elevators to do hauling and other “donkey tasks”.  It was too difficult to bring them up and down every day so they made pens for them to live in and kept them down there all the time.  The problem was, there was no light down there and eventually the donkeys went blind.  The President declared that it was cruel to treat the animals like that and they were forced to bring them above ground and find other ways of hauling and packing underground.  The neat thing is that since then, donkeys
have become honored animals and they just roam around the town, some of them descendants of the original ones from the mine.  It is very strange to drive around town and have to stop while a herd of donkeys cross the road, or to be in a shop and hear the “donkey alert” - announcing where a group of them are gathered at the moment for people who want pictures.  While we were in one shop we heard the announcement – “they are at the High School on the 30 yard line”.

Modern Mining

While we were in Victor, another mining town right near Cripple Creek, we were looking at our information to decide what to do next.  A local woman asked if we were interested in seeing current mining.  She gave us directions to a much lesser known spot where we could sit on top of the hill and look down on the huge equipment mining right there.  It was so interesting to be able to see in the same day, the differences between where it all started and how far it has come.

I have mentioned before how sad it is, the long lasting effect that natural disasters have on a community.  In 2012 there was a huge forest fire just outside of Colorado Springs – The Waldo Canyon Fire.  When we first got there we didn’t know anything about it, but we noticed that people would often mention “the fire” or “the burn” in conversation.  We went to the town museum where they had a whole display of just how devastating it was.  If you don’t live in an area where forest fires are common, they are one of those things that you see on TV and you think “that must be scary”.  When you get up close and see displays of toys melted together in an unrecognizable mass, or the remains of family picture albums, or furniture disintegrated into tiny fragments, you get a feel for just how much of an impact it has on a town.  It was also interesting to watch the local weather where they would always give “the burn” forecast because there is so much potential for mudslides and floods in the area where the vegetation hasn’t grown back yet.  It’s no wonder the sadness and fears stay with people for years to come.

Underwater Bowling

There was just so much to do in Colorado Springs. We got to go kayaking, which we hadn’t done in ages in the drought worn southwest.  We celebrated Cliff’s Birthday in an airplane restaurant – a restaurant that was built completely around an airplane, with the seats converted to booths and the cockpit open for you to play and explore on the controls.  We found a really fun bar in a closed down school.  It was really unique to have a beer in the principal’s office and deal with short little toilets in the ladies room.  We toured a great motorcycle museum and had a gorgeous picture-taking day at the Air Force Academy.  I think my favorite “playday” was at the bowling alley in Bass Pro Shops.  Everything was meticulously decorated to make you feel like you were underwater.  The details were awesome, right down to the bowling balls that were painted like underwater creatures.  It was a great place for a fun date night (or 2).

No matter how high we
go, he always has
to get a little bit higher

What people will do for a laugh

Every place we turned, the mountains outlined our view and the red rocks just popped out of the scenery.  Some of it was great for motorcycling, challenging for Cliff and awe inspiring for me.  I just love the feeling of driving through a  carved out mountain, surrounded by stone on both sides and as far up as I could see.  The whole time we were in Colorado we stayed on the East side of the Rockies.  I can’t wait to get back someday to see the Western side and do more exploring.   It’s one of those places that you know, no matter how many times you go there, you could ever get enough of the beauty surrounding you.