SATURDAY,
7/28
Woke
to another gorgeous blue sky. As Bill
said, “My baby's blue Colorado sky.” After
breakfasting outside, drove to the Garden once more. We feel so drawn to this place – are
enchanted by its simple splendor. Today we first drove again around the back
side of the major formations . .. Bill
wanted to get some pictures of this glorious view in the morning light. After taking the first shot (he thought), he
went to view it, and no picture. He then
made the horrifying (well, a slight exaggeration) discovery that he had left
the memory stick by the computer in the RV.
Were discussing whether it was worth going all the way back home for it,
when I brilliantly (again, maybe a slight exaggeration) remembered that
I had my small camera with me, and we could use that memory stick in Bill’s
camera. Crisis averted! But this solution occurred after we had left
parking area for the views he wanted, so we didn’t get those photos. Oh well.
Continued on the road to the trail head
for the “Siamese Twins” loop. The trail
was only about 1 mile, but moderately twisty & rocky in places, and uphill
halfway . . . good practice for more strenuous mountain hiking later on. Led us to the Siamese Twins formation – so
named because of the “twin” rocks joined” at the hip.” The “keyhole” separating them gives perfect
views of Pike’s Peak in the background.
I remember being here with Jason and Bethany 19 years ago, and taking
their picture here . . . but I don’t remember the mildly strenuous walk/hike
getting here. Spent the better part of
an hour here – views were lovely, lots of photo ops, and just fun walking
around on the big rocks surrounding the formation. A group on horseback came up over the rocks
and back down – was a very picturesque scene – the pretty horses against the
red rock, green chaparral, and mountains in the distance. Glad the timing was such that we got to see
it!
Then drove on down the road to the
Balanced Rock formation. A very popular
spot – lots of people there, kids having fun climbing on the surrounding rocks,
and posing in front of the huge rock to get their picture taken. We stayed just for a short while. Then drove over to the Visitor’s Center for a
short while and got a little book of gorgeous photographs, taken in all 4
seasons. Very nice volunteers working
there!
Left the park to drive to the Pike’s Peak
Highway (a toll road). Drove by the
picturesque town of Manitou Springs.
Again, I remembered being here with the kids 19 or 20 yrs ago – we went
thru Cave of the Winds, and had dinner at an outdoor Italian cafe there. Saw several large homemade signs thanking the firefighters for
saving their community. Started on the road up the mountain around
1:30 or 2:00. Was still fairly clear
& beautiful most of the way up.The landscape & vegetation of what we’d seen
for the last couple of days – the crossroads of the Great Plains meeting the
Mountains (predominantly Juniper & Pinyon Pines, lots of yucca, even some occasional cactus) - gave way to beautiful sub-alpine terrain as
we started out (deciduous trees, mostly aspen, mixed in with
lots of firs), then pure alpine – almost
exclusively fir trees as we climbed higher. About ¾ of the way up (mile 14
out of 19), we saw a small commotion at an inn/restaurant. Actually, an emergency vehicle had passed us
on the way up a while back, and now it was parked there at the inn. We actually saw them carrying a man on a
stretcher into the ambulance. We saw no
vehicle left by the side of the road, so assumed he had been in the inn when he
needed help. At any rate, a cop was
directing traffic both up and down the mountain, and let us on thru. But apparently we were the last vehicle he
let go up, because a mile or so further up, we stopped at a scenic pullout, and
there were no cars behind us. Then we
saw a helicopter coming in, and lower down at the inn; we surmised that all
traffic was being held up to make way for the helicopter’s access. So apparently whatever happened to that man
was serious enough that it warranted flying him out – not an easy task at that
location!
Shortly after that stop was the treeline,
and then tundra. The road also became
steeper (at least it seemed so), with many hairpin curves. There were few guardrails. My fear of heights kicked in, becoming more
intense the farther we climbed, so much so that I was actually crying, it
shames me to say. I was so relieved when
we reached the summit! Bill was too –
not out of any safety concern, but because I was such a wreck. After composing ourselves for a few moments
in the truck, we got out. Was only
moderately cloudy for the first half hour or so we were there, and temps in the
50’s, so we could see a little in the distance and weren’t too uncomfortable
temperature-wise. Bill got a few
pictures. However, in a little while it
began to really cloud up, and then rain, and got considerably cooler. So, like everyone else, we headed inside to
the restaurant/gift shop. I think that’s
a typical weather scenario for the summit – I remember when the kids and I were
here, it was the same thing. We (Bill
and I) felt lucky to have had the 30 minutes or so of decent weather we did up
there.
I was so dreading the drive downhill that
we asked if 1-way tickets were available on the Cog train going downhill. Yes, they were, and the price was reasonable
($22), and had almost decided that I’d take the train down, while Bill drove
down by himself. But at the last minute,
something made me decide that I could make it downhill in the truck with Bill
without ending up in a psych ward. Bill
told me that it should only take about 10 minutes to get past those last 4
miles which were so unnerving to me. And
we prayed together for peace for me. It
wasn’t nearly as bad going down as coming up.
I think the mist & rain actually helped – made everything blurry
& soft (altho I had my eyes closed and was counting away the minutes most
of the time!). When we reached the inn,
I knew I could enjoy the remainder of the trip down! It was still misty, and with all of the fir
trees, reminded me of the Northwest.
It wasn’t long after we got home that it
started raining steadily, and the wind picked up. Ate leftovers inside, and went to bed not
long afterwards.
SUNDAY, JULY 29:
Slept about11 hours last night – haven’t
slept anywhere near that long for months!!
Another absolutely gorgeous morning –
probably the best so far. Cloudless, impossibly
blue sky this morning. The RV park
offers Danish pastries coffee Sunday mornings, so as we were enjoying ours on
the picnic table, soaking in the pure sunshine, we talked about staying here
one more day and driving up to Grand Lake &Rocky Mountain Natl Park
tomorrow, instead of today as scheduled.
It just felt so inviting to stay here at the park for the day and just
relax. We asked the folks at the office here if they had our spot reserved for
tonite. They didn’t – it was ours if we
wanted it, so we called ahead to Grand Lake to let them know we’d be arriving a
day late. We might have to forfeit a nite’s fee up there, but we concluded it
would be well worth the $35. After all,
as Bill said, isn’t having this kind of flexibility supposed to be one of the
benefits of retirement travel?!
So we just spent the day hanging around the
RV. Took a walk around the park. It’s really a very lovely park – set up with
terraced sites, good space between each site, lots of pretty landscaping,
etc. If we ever get tired of travelling,
but want to escape the St. Louis heat for the summer, we can see ourselves
coming here & staying for a few weeks.
Initiated Jonathan’s lounge chairs (those
he gave us for Christmas/Bill’s birthday).
Wow, are they great! Thanks
again, Jonathan!! Read and dozed in them most of the day. It was just what we needed after 4 days of
driving and sight-seeing.
