Garden of the Gods with Friends

In my last blog post--click here--I showed a few local places along the Colorado Front Range where we took close friends that were visiting from the east and staying with us for days before a ski trip.  On another day my husband and I decided to take them to Colorado Springs to see another one of our favorite places, the Garden of the Gods Park. (See some more extensive prior posts about the park here and here.)   When we approached the north entrance of the park it was unfortunately closed as road and sewer construction was going on, so we had to skip the visitor center in that area and enter the park through the southern entrance. There we almost immediately saw one of the most popular attractions: Balanced Rock.  We parked in a nearby lot so we could take photos of the rock and our friends had fun posing with it, as you can see.

Balanced Rock is at 6,286 feet (1915.9 M) elevation in the park. Doesn't it look like it could topple over at any minute?  

We drove on to see more...

The Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark. It is full of towering sandstone rock formations against a backdrop of snow-capped Pikes Peak and brilliant blue skies. It contains 21 miles of trails and is popular for hiking, technical rock climbing, road and mountain biking, and horseback riding. It attracts more than two million visitors a year, making it the city's most visited park.  

Although we did stop to walk a few short trails we mainly drove around the park on this visit it was late afternoon when we arrived and winter daylight would not be lasting much longer.

The waning sunlight made the formations glow.

That is what we love about the park as each season and time of day can bring different views and effects.

One happy surprise is seeing a herd of wild Bighorn Sheep eating in one of the fields in the park!

We spent quite a bit of time taking photos of them.  Although their numbers are growing, and they are the official mammal of the state of Colorado, seeing them in person is a rarity, as they usually habitat in the wilderness at high elevations.

A view of some of the trails inside the park.

A view looking at Juniper Way Loop, looking South.

The rock formations are breathtaking...

...and so colorful!

It was a wonderful drive

More of the beautiful giant red rocks structures including a view of snow-capped Pikes Peak --America's Mountain--in the upper right of the photo collage above.  Pikes Peak is a 14,115-foot (4,302.31 m) high mountain located in Pike National Forest.  My husband and I have driven to the top of the mountain many times and took the Cog Railroad to the top once.  There have been many renovations happening on the mountain with a new visitors center and new cog railroad track and cars--click here-- to see a visit we made with friends to see those renovations in progress last summer.  The famous "Kissing Camels" formation is seen in the lower right photo in the collage above.

Before we left the Colorado Springs area we took a drive to historic Manitou Springs, located at the foot of Pike's Peak. Please click on the photo collage above to enlarge it for easier viewing.

Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the information on the placard.

There are eight naturally-carbonated mineral springs in Manitou Springs. Deep underground beneath the town is a system of cavernous aquifers whose healing waters have drawn people to the town for centuries. Our friends sampled the water at one of the springs.  My husband and I sampled the mineral water at each of the fountains in Manitous Springs one summer, and you can see more about them and the town in this post.

Another wildlife sighting and traffic jam made us laugh as we left Manitou Springs!  A flock of Wild Turkeys was crossing the road!

They seemed to enjoy peeking at the rocks of a Sinclair Gasoline Station and the green brontosaurus sculpture did not scare them a bit!

The light was fading as we drove home...

...and we were fortunate to see a gorgeous golden sunset light up the entire Colorado Front Range!

Our friends left the next day to go skiing in Steamboat Springs, where they had a wonderful time. We hope they will return in the future for another visit with us and another ski adventure. It was so much fun to share some of our favorite places with them and we will have even more show them next time

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What's New On Pikes Peak!

At the beginning of September, a former colleague of my husband was visiting Colorado Springs with her husband for a convention.  We live about an hour away in the Denver area, but we offered to drive them up to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs on a day they were free, and after they acclimated to the elevation of Colorado Springs. We heard that many new features were being built on the top of the 14,115 foot (94302.32 m) mountain which would be interesting to see in progress.  Pikes Peak also called "America's Mountain" is one of the most visited mountains in the world and a top tourist attraction for the State of Colorado. Annually, nearly 1 million people reach the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway, or, for the more adventurous, the Barr or Crags hiking trails. Pikes Peak is an American icon, and the summit is a National Historic Landmark that holds a special place in America's heart.

We have made many drives up to the summit of Pikes Peak, and in this post, you can see a more detailed ride up and down the mountain. In this post, you can learn about the town of Manitou Springs which lies at the base of Pikes Peak, and within this post, you can see a trip we took on the Cog Railroad up to the summit of Pikes Peak with my younger brother who was visiting one year. 

Although the sky was uncharacteristically hazy, due to western wildfire smoke in the atmosphere, the view on the drive up was still breathtaking.

As you can see in the photo above there are many switchbacks on the road up the mountain.

 

There are also some places along the drive where you feel as if you are going to drive right off into the clouds!

For the faint of heart, The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railroad does the driving for you and is fully narrated with interesting historical facts. The Cog Railroad has been functioning since 1891, but in the last few years, it has been completely overhauled by its owner, The Broadmoor Hotel and Spa, with new trains, new tracks, a new depot, and a new Pikes Peak Visitor Center to become one of the most unique experiences in the world. 

There was still snow on the ground from a light snowfall that occurred a few days before and the views from the summit, although hazy in the distance, went on for many miles.

There were still many construction vehicles and work in progress at the summit.  It is amazing to think of how those large construction machines and supplies drove up to the mountaintop and have worked, weather permitting, constructing new view platforms, a new parking lot, new walkways, and a new Visitor Center Complex! As you can see in the collage above most of the mountain top at one time was a boulder field. The older Visitor Center built in the '60s was being knocked down.

The new Visitor Center is open although finishing touches were still being made inside and around it.

The new Pikes Peak Summit Complex, which includes the Visitor Center, a utility facility, and a High-Altitude Research Laboratory. has large windows to see the views, a gift shop, restrooms, an interactive display room, and a cafeteria. My husband and friend sampled the legendary high-altitude donuts.

We also watched another cog railway approach the summit from the back porch of the Visitor Center.

A wall of the original 1873 Summit House has been preserved.  Click on the photo to enlarge it to read the informational placard about it in the collage above. 

There were many other interesting informational placards on the new railings--click twice on the photo collage above to enlarge them to read them.

There is also a new modern Summit Sign! It has the new exact measurement of 14,115 feet on it.  We all posed for photos by it. The original 1907 US Geological Survey medallion can be seen on the ground in front of the sign.  

The drive down the mountain was also exciting. We stopped for a while at an area called the Devil's Playground where I took a photo of our friends taking a selfie. 

The Devil's Playground Trail (also known as the Crags Trail) traverses approximately 7 miles and 4,300 feet starting from a trailhead located near the Crags Campground (Woodland Park, CO) and terminating at the summit of Pikes Peak, elevation 14,115 feet. The trail is located entirely on the USFS Pike National Forest.

We continued on until we had the mandatory stop for a brake check at the Glen Cove station on our descent.  Even though my husband followed all the Pikes Peak suggested driving rules our brakes measured hot and we were told to pull over to cool them for a half-hour. It was the first time that happened in all our drives but this was also the lightest traffic we encountered in all our trips up and down the mountain so we may have been going a little faster than usual.  We were able to buy coffee and peruse the gift shop during our stop so all was well.  

We had a wonderful time on the mountain and afterward our guests treated us to a delicious lunch. It was so nice to spend the day with our friends and we know they enjoyed the rest of the time they spent in Colorado. Meanwhile, my husband and I are excited to plan to return next summer to Pikes Peak to see the completion of all the improvements and to enjoy the views again!

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Merry Christmas 2018!

 December has been a very busy month for my family, for many reasons, and I realized I should have taken a blog break this month, as I have had hardly any time to sit by my computer.  Hopefully, if you keep in touch with me by Instagram, facebook, or twitter, you have seen why my blog has been quiet these past few weeks. 

We began December by traveling to Colorado Springs, where we stayed overnight at the beautiful Broadmoor Resort and Hotel.  I've blogged about this very special hotel more extensively on this post--click here--where we celebrated an anniversary a few years ago.

It was beautifully decorated for the Christmas season, with many different Christmas trees in all of its buildings.

We stayed overnight at the hotel with friends, as we were all in Colorado Springs to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert. What a spectacular show they put on! The lights, special effects, narrated Christmas story and music was all fabulous!

On our way home the next day we drove through the Garden of the Gods--click here--to read my post about this natural red rock park in Colorado Springs--where we saw this wonderful view of Pikes Peak. There was a little bit of snow at its 14,114-foot elevation. So far late autumn has not brought the front range of Colorado much cold or snow, but the higher elevations and ski resort areas have gotten a nice amount.

Although my husband and I were nursing colds and sore backs, we were able to put up and decorate our Christmas tree and decorate the rest of the house outside and in. All of the ornaments on our tree have a special meaning to me, as I have collected them from different places and occasions over the years. It is like visiting old friends when I take them out of their boxes every season. As you can see I have a soft spot for Santa Claus.

December brought a Christmas dance recital for our youngest granddaughter, a guitar recital for our oldest grandson, and Santa Claus visits for all four grandchildren. All very sweet moments!

December also brought my oldest grandson's 10th birthday! To celebrate we went to a Benihana Restuarant where our meal was cooked in front of us all as the chef wield his knives expertly and we watched in fascination.

While I plan on making Christmas cookies this week, my granddaughter and I did make our annual Gingerbread house together...

...and my husband and I made our traditional savory zeppoles today.  These are not the usual sweet Italian Neopolitan, donut-like zeppoles that many of you may be familiar with,  but Calabrian savory potato and semolina dough style with an anchovy in the middle. They are a once a year treat for us! If you'd like the recipe I described the entire process of how to make them on this post. On Christmas Eve I prepare an Italian style "Feast of the Seven Fishes," and one of my most popular recipes is the Mixed Seafood Salad-click here-for that recipe.

So this last week before Christmas Eve will continue to be a busy time for me, but I am loving every minute of it. Of course, the most important part of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May His message of love for all people, especially those that need our love the most, be in our hearts and in our actions in 2019.

Merry Christmas to all!

See you in 2019!

A Family Visit and Colorado Sightseeing

We were happy to have family visit us recently!  Our nephew and his wife visited Colorado for the first time on vacation, and after visiting Vail and Avon, they spent the remaining time with us. After enjoying a day with our family here we spent the rest of the time sightseeing with them. Top on our list for things to do was to take a drive on the "Peak to Peak" highway to the town of Estes Park. The views along this highway are beautiful, and even more so in winter when the Rockies are covered with snow. I've blogged about this scenic highway before, which you can read on this post.  In Estes we visited the historic Stanley Hotel for lunch.  If you remember this past blog post, my husband and I saw a "ghost" there on an overnight visit we made for our anniversary a couple of years ago.  Happily, did not see any ghosts on this visit, but our relatives were excited to see some large elk eating the grass in the hotel parking lot!

All photos and photo collages will enlarge if clicked on

After lunch, we took a ride into Rocky Mountain National Park. There we saw a large herd of elk in one of the meadows and lots of beautiful snow capped peaks, but surprisingly little snow at the lower elevations.  The winter in Colorado has been unusually mild this year, and snowfall at the lower elevations has been below normal, although it has been fairly normal at the higher elevations. We've visited Rocky Mountain National Park many times since moving to Colorado--it holds a special place in our heart--and we were excited to show some of it to our family members.

This is the view we had from Horseshoe Park Overlook in the park--breathtaking, isn't it?  No matter what the season, the park is wonderful to visit!

If you would like to read more details about Rocky Mountain National Park on my blog you can click here for the eastern side of Trail Ridge Road, and here for the Roof of the Rockies, and here for the western side of Trail Ridge Road.  I also have a post about Rocky Mountain National Park in autumn, which you can see here.

The next day we headed south from the Denver area towards Colorado Springs. It is always exciting to see Pike's Peak from the highway.  We had hope to take the cog railroad or even drive up the 14,115 foot (4.302252 km) high Pike's Peak--called "America's Mountain--but the railroad is closed during the months of January and February to the peak, and only runs on weekends to Inspiration Point. Because of snow pack, the road was also closed past a certain point.  So this trip we could only take in the mountain views from the ground.

To see a drive we took up to the summit of Pikes Peak in the summer click here.

We did visit the beautiful Garden of the Gods, a registered National Natural Landmark in Colorado Springs, comprised of giant red rock formations that were created during a geological upheaval along a fault line millions of years ago.

We enjoyed driving and hiking through the park on a wonderfully mild weather afternoon.  We hiked up to the "Siamese Twins" formation to take some photos.....

...and also the 700 ton "Balanced Rock" formation!

To see more photos from Garden on the Gods from a trip we made during the summer, click here.

We also had time to visit Manitou Springs, a small scenic town located at the base of Pikes Peak, and known for its natural mineral springs. There we had fun tasting the mineral water that flows freely into eight public fountains in town, and looking at the shops and historic buildings in the area. I will show more about these springs on a future blog post.

Among other fun places, and things, that we did together with our nephew and niece-in-law was to visit the outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheater--where they returned the next morning to do a work out climbing up and down the stairs! We also drove into Denver to see some sights and to have dinner.  It was a wonderful visit, and we now miss them dearly.  It was so nice to spend time again with extended family members, and we hope more of our family will come to visit us soon!

Before I leave I wanted to share some photos of our oldest granddaughter's 4th birthday party. She had a party at a famous mouse party place where there are a lot of rides and fun games to play, and a wonderful time was had by all. It's hard to believe how fast our grandchildren are growing up, but we are certainly enjoying every moment with them. 

Spring will soon be here and that often means snow showers for us on the Front Range of Colorado, that will bring wildflowers in June. I'm looking forward to longer daylight, more outdoor fun and seeing our flowers grow.  What are you looking forward to in Spring?

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