S '23, Episode 7, Manitou Springs, CO (08-11-23)

 For the past few weeks we have been staying for a week at each destination we had. That part of our summer is over. At this point we are headed towards El Paso to spend time with Paul’s mom for her 93rd birthday. We have time to stop a few places along the way, but not for a week, and we have no reservations.

We discovered that with the heatwave that has hit most of the country, RV spots in cooler areas are hard to come by. We finally found an RV spot in Manitou Springs- it was recommended by a park that had no availability (“they are so expensive, they might have a spot open still”) –and so they did.

It seems like whenever we look at a map of Colorado, our eyes skim over Florrisant Fossil Beds National Monument, and we say some day we need to go there. Well, today was that day. We realized our rig would fit in the parking lot and it was on our way to Manitou Springs. Perfect.

This is one of the largest fossil beds in the world. They were created when nearby volcanoes erupted, covering the entire area with massive mudflows.

Our original intent was to just walk one of the short trails and check out the most impressive fossils, but we arrived just as a tour was starting, so we joined it.

The fossils in this area are all permineralized- created when an animal or tree is buried quickly. Over time, water seeps into the dead organism, and leaves minerals behind- essentially making a stone replica of whatever was there.

After an hour or so, we were on our way again.

The Manitou Springs/Colorado Springs area has an incredible amount of hiking available, and that's what we were focused on.

We first headed to Red Rock Canyon Open Space area- a place where we have never hiked.

We chose the Red Rock Canyon trail (very original) and ended up hiking almost 4 miles.

Since our hike was reasonably short, we felt fine looking for another hike the following day. This time we headed back to Garden of the Gods Park. We have hiked here before, but we took a different trail this time.

Along the way we passed by, among other things,  the Siamese Twins Rock formation. 

 

The bright green foliage against the red rock is a really spectacular sight.

This park is very popular so you are never really alone. We ended up hiking about 3 miles.

Our final day in the area we went a slightly different way. We drove to Seven Falls, which is a privately owned park, and therefore, has a cost associated with it.

There are two ways to get to the top- the stairs….

…and the elevator. Yes, elevator. We originally took the elevator up, but realized it didn’t go where we wanted,  which was the top of the waterfall.  Turns out there are TWO sets of stairs.

So we came back down and headed up the other stairs- 224 stairs up to the top.

Once there, there are a couple of hiking trails that lead to other waterfalls and some viewpoints. 

 

We hiked both of them. They aren’t very long trails.

Once we were done, we felt like we deserved some ice cream, so that’s what we had for lunch.

We could easily spend a month in this area, but 3 days is all we had, and then it was time to move on, closer to El Paso. At the pace we are moving at, it took us a few days more to get there.

After the success we had visiting Florrisant while towing the rig, we looked at doing the same thing at Pecos Pueblo National Historic Park, which was along our route to El Paso. It worked out very well.

The site of Pecos Pueblo was settled in the 1400s, and was inhabited until the mid 1800s when the last of the Pecos people relocated to nearby Jemez. 

In the 1600s the Spanish arrived, looking to convert the natives to their religion. In the process, their treatment of the Pecos people got worse and worse (oh, the irony) and in 1680 the people in several of the surrounding pueblos banded together to take their lives back. They planned a successful revolt, pushing the Spaniards out of the area. This is what is left of the church that was built.

We took a one hour tour of the ruins, and one of the things the ranger talked about was different ways of viewing “trash”. We, as modern people, view trash as things that have no value, that aren’t needed anymore. The Pecos people say that the piles of “discarded” items are halfway along their journey back to dust, and so, didn’t necessarily bury their loved ones separately from anything else.

A few days later we were hiking a trail somewhere else, and came across a rotting tree that really reminded me of that idea. You can clearly see that the top part of the tree trunk is essentially dissolving.

Soon enough, we were in El Paso.

Colorado Springs, CO (06-18-19)

Having never been to Colorado Springs, we figured it was a good place to stop before we went through Denver.

 I must say, the hiking in this area is Amazing.

Our campground of choice was the local Elks lodge, but they had no sites available, so we dry camped in their parking lot for 4 days.
The weather was not particularly cooperative so when we set out to hike, we had to make it a short one. We chose Pulpit Rock.










There are several interwoven trails in this park, so you can make the hike as long or as short as you want.  As much as we would have liked to stay longer, the wet stuff dripping from the sky had us turning back before we wanted. Still, it was a great hike and fun too.

With our outing cut short we headed to the nearest REI. I needed new waterproof hiking boots to bring to Europe, and I wanted to get them in time to break them in. There's me in my new boots...










In keeping with our idea of not hiking too many days in a row, we took a day off to do some more shopping.  A few months ago I dropped my iPad and it has never been the same. It was time to suck it up and buy a new one...which we did. We spent two hours in the Apple store, but walked out with everything from my old iPad already moved over to the new one.

What was really cool was that I needed a cover for it, but of course we are traveling.  Well, turns out there is an Amazon locker very close to the Elks lodge. I ordered it, 2 days later it was at the locker, and when I held the bar code on my phone up to the scanner, a door popped open and there was my cover! Amazingly easy!  We were both impressed.

In the same plaza as Apple was a sporting goods store we'd never heard of- Scheels- so we walked through it...admiring the Ferris wheel and the fish tank, complete with a diver who was cleaning the tank. We didn't buy anything.


















There is a park in Colorado Springs that I wanted to hike, but the park has hundreds of interwoven trails, so in order to choose a length that suited us, Paul and I used one of our hiking apps to plot a trail.

We drove to Garden of the Gods,  realizing as soon as we looked for a parking spot- that it was Father's Day- and every dad and his kids were at this park.
We were ready to drive off, but did manage to find a parking spot.  We had to adjust our trail plan a bit, but we had a great hike, with great weather.

This park has an interesting history. The land was bought by Charles Perkins, the president of a railroad company, in the late 1800s. He never built on the land and allowed the public to use it. It was his intention to turn it into a public park, but he died before he could do it. Instead, his children donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs, to be made into a park, with the stipulation that it always be free to use.

After hiking 5 miles in the heat, the next day was designated a "scenic drive" day, although in reality, we tried to plan things so that this particular scenic drive would be on a good weather day.  We were headed to Pikes Peak. At over 14,000 ft, we had no intention of hiking it, we just wanted to get to the top- and even in a vehicle, it wasn't that easy!  

We thought we would relax and take the Cog railway to the top, but after 126 years of  continuous operation- it was closed for renovation. So Jeepy had to make the trek. We bought our tickets at the bottom of the "hill" and were told that there was ice on the road at the top, so we may not make it all the way.

We drove as far up as we could- mile 16 (out of 19) and while we waited for the road to clear, we socialized, took pictures, and watched a skier ski about 50 ft down a hill before he ran into the road.

About an hour later, the ice melted, and the shuttle bus took us to the top. Lucky for us, the skies were reasonably clear and we had great views.

 It was cold but not bone chilling cold so we could walk around outside for a bit.  My  favorite  memory of a mountain peak is Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. The last time we were there, the wind was whipping and it was frigid. Winds there can top out at almost 200 mph.

Our guide here told us they close this mountain if the wind hits 40 mph.  So different!

 On the way down there is a mandatory brake check. Brake temperature has to be below 300* in order for you to continue down the hill. Paul was happy ( OK, gloating) over the fact that his brake temperature was 126*.

Our shuttle bus driver told us if we had any leftover time, we should head to Cripple Creek, CO. It's a small, picturesque town that has a Gold Mine Tour (it also has at least two museums, but we didn't have time).  Well, he had Paul at the word "Mine".  This area actually has a lot of active gold mining going on, which is unique.

After grabbing lunch at a local pub with surprisingly good pizza, we headed to the Molly Kathleen Mine.
 The toughest part (so they say) is the 1000 ft drop in the "elevator".  I think it's 3 ft by 3 ft, and would carry nine miners down the shaft. We had 6 people in it and it felt like 20.  Once at the bottom, things opened up.








The woman who was our tour guide is a 5th generation miner. When not giving tours, she actually works in the mines. That was really cool because she told us stories of her grandfather and what mining was like when he was working versus what she does today. Having  been on quite a few mine tours, I am always on the lookout for a few nuggets of new information.



"Back in the day" the miners had to work by candle light- and since candles were expensive, they didn't want to waste them. They discovered that if they started out with a candle, they could blow it out, and their eyes would remember what they saw, kind of like a ghost picture, so they worked in total darkness, based on that picture. Um, no thanks.

While showing us the "elevator" she described it's use. A rope attached to a bell at the surface would signal  the operator that men needed to go up, or come down, how many men, etc.  A signal of 3 pulls, then 1 pull, and another single pull,  meant someone needed to go up to the surface (going up). She cleverly explained that now when someone asks her "what's up' she replies "3-1-1".  Corny but fun.

Anyway, she was a great tour guide and  the mine was fun,  as long as I could forget I was underground.