My Other Colorado Adventures 8/10 - 14/06

This is a long one....

The reason I went to Colorado was for my cousin's wedding but while I was there I managed to get in a lot of other activities, thanks mainly to my dad.

The trip started out a bit sketchy due to the increased security at the airport. I woke up to my cell phone ringing. It was my mom telling me to make sure to turn on the news that there had been a bunch of people arrested for plotting another terrorist attack. I spent the next few hours watching the news and going back and forth on whether I should check my bag or buy all of the stuff I needed when I got there. I finally decided that since the plane was small and we were flying in to a small airport, I would check my bag. My grandma did not see the part of the news that said that things like suntan lotion and toothpaste were liquids too so she was detained a bit and they threw out a lot of stuff from her carry-on. Hindsight said she should have checked her bag. Oh well, she took it in good spirits for the most part. My flight was delayed so we didn't make it to Colorado Springs until late afternoon. Once there though we were out and in to the rental car very fast (maybe a total of 20 minutes from getting off the plane to us driving out of the airport).

Friday morning was a play day for Dad and I. I didn't have any tasks until around 4-ish when I volunteered to pick up my grandpa, aunt, and cousin from the airport. Dad and I took the opportunity to visit one of the tourist destinations of The Springs - The Garden of the Gods. This is an area where unique rock formations sit. We started the morning at the visitors center (very impressive). From there we went down to Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site. This is a lovely living history area of the park. We saw a lot of wildflowers and visited an Indian village, an old Homestead, and the house of one of the owners of the property. There was more to see but it was getting hot and we knew we had to make it to the rock formations before it got too hot.

The next activity was to take a driving tour around the rock formations. We got out to hike to the Siamese Twins trail. It is a very short (1/2 mile rt) trail with only 150ft of elevation gain, but I managed to biff it quite spectacularly. I was totally stupid. I was wearing a cute Hawaiian dress with sandals that had no traction at all. I was just asking for a fall. Going up wasn't so bad, only a couple of slips. It was going down that was my undoing. It is surprising actually where I did eventually fall. It wasn't that steep but I hit those tiny pebbles on exposed rock and down I went. I skinned my knee and messed up my toe (I punctured it). I guess I just needed to give a little blood to the rock gods. My Dad was slipping around too on the trail and he had proper hiking shoes on. We took a lot of time to take pictures and made it back in time to take a trip to the airport. My Dad also took the time to patch me up back at my Uncle's house. Thanks Dad!

After picking up my family members we all needed to go to the rehearsal dinner. It was quite a large dinner. We had Italian food, lots of good conversation, and we saw the strangest thing. A fox decided to crash the party. I don't think I have ever seen a fox in real life before. They are really graceful creatures. This one knew right were the food was though. People outside startled the fox off finally because it was getting too close.

Saturday was the wedding and I covered that in my previous post!

Sunday, Dad and I managed to talk my Uncle Mike in to going hiking with us. My dad was the master planner of the excursion with my Uncle Mike's help on where things were located. We took a drive up to Helen Hunt Falls. This is a pretty little waterfall and the Silver Cascade Falls Trail goes up over the falls to an additional waterfall called guess what... yep, Silver Cascade Falls. It was a nice warm up hike for a longer one we took later up the Mt Cutler Trail. This trail was beautiful. It starts off gaining elevation and once you go over the ridge to the other side you have great views of one of the biggest tourist destinations in the Springs - Seven Falls. Normally (and maybe eventually) I would have been all over this attraction. I read though that they had an elevator and that they shine colored lights on it at night... Hmmm, I am not too sure about that whole experience. It was pretty though to look at from a distance during the daytime. We ended up on a point that gave us great views of the Garden of the Gods, pretty much all of Colorado Springs, the Broadmore golf course/resort, a shrine on the mountainside, and of course Pikes Peak itself, one of Colorado's fourteeners. While on that hike though the weather turned south and it began to thunder and lightening and rain. It was quite wet by the time we got back to the trailhead. It didn't look good for our next planned hike which, it looked, was right where the storm was the worst. Until we drove up there though (about an hour away from where we were) we decided that we were hungry so we stopped at one of the local burger places near my Uncle's house. It was pretty good, but I regret not getting a shake. My Dad had a Butterscotch shake and my Uncle had a Strawberry malt... YUM!

Our next destination was on the western side of Pikes Peak. I think my dad said the elevation of the waterfall at the end of that trail was around 8400ft. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the weather was terrible. It was hailing and raining heavily. I actually turned on the 4x4 on the Ford Explorer so that I would feel better driving on those wet soggy roads. We ended up in Cripple Creek. A mining town with lots of casinos. I had been there before a long time ago, and we did not stop this time. We continued on so that we could get back in time to BBQ. It was a completely lovely ride through that area of Colorado. I found a valley that I could move to it was so beautiful and peaceful. We ended up at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. It was really cool there because we saw fossilized Giant Sequoia trees. I have seen the real thing twice this year so it was really interesting to see the big stumps of the trees but made of stone. We made it back home for dinner. That night my cousin Gina, Dad, and Aunt Eileen all went out to see a movie (Talladega Nights is very funny!).

This brings me to Monday. The original plan was to go to Cave of the Winds - a place that I have been several times before, but my Uncle (who has lived in Colorado Springs for around 25 years) had never been. He unfortunately had to go in to work Monday morning so we (really I mean I) didn't have time to go there before I had to go to the airport. I, instead, dropped in on an old high school friend of mine. I haven't seen Damian in a good 7 years but I have known him for probably around 13 or 14 years. He dated my former best friend and I dated his best friend way back when. We remained friends though even after break-ups and when he got married, I made his wedding cake and was one of his wife's maids of honor. I even took his wife out for her bachelorette party!!! It was good to see him doing well. We talked about old times for a while but then I had to go so that I could pick up my luggage and say goodbye to my family before flying out.

All in all, it was a pretty busy and fun weekend!! I need to go back to Colorado though, there is so much to see that I could probably spend several weeks there!