Lance and Julie's Adventures

Garden of the God's is an absolutely amazing place. It reminded me of Seneca Rocks, but red, and bigger. The Ute indians sure did pic a good spot to live. Can you imagine living a such a place? Waking up to this scene everyday?

Entrance sign. The start of an exciting day.

Julie trying to be outdoors girl

Pike's Peak through the rocks

Siamese Twins

I saw this rock falling so I figured I'm jump up there and hold it up

Garden of the gods was simply amazing. Even though it was extremely hot and very windy the park was beautiful. And when I say windy I mean it was windy. We were in the middle of sand storms the whole time. We were covered with at least an inch of dust when we left.

I seriously have not had so much sand in my mouth. It was even stuck to my lips because I had put on chapstick.

Then we headed into downtown Manitou Springs for lunch. We found a really adorable little european cafe. They specialized in Polish food. I was too exhausted to be anymore adventurous so I went with the BLT (with avacado). I don't know if it was because I was so hot or tired or wind blown, but it was soooo good. It was served with home fries and... a banana!

Our waitress explained to us that all the fountains in town were in fact tapped into the local springs and each one had a different flavor. I don't know, we tried 3 and, well, they were all nasty.

Since it was so hot, we popped into another little cafe for ice cream. Oddly enough it was a middle eastern cafe. We've noticed that there are alot of middle easterners in this area. One shop owner we met was from that part of the world and he said he really likes in here in Colorado because of the landscape. It's very similar to home. I never even would have made that conection, but it's true!


Dulcimer/guitar shop where they make everything there the old fashioned way.

After that, we said goodbye to Colorado Springs and headed up to Denver. On our way, we saw this:

Black Forest wildfire

As we left Colorado Springs, the scenery instantly changed. We began to be surounded by buttes and bluffs that rose up from the flat landscape.

Then there they were!!! The mountains of Rocky Mountain National Park! Jagged and snow covered!

One of the many wildfires in the area and unfortunately the most devastating one. With all the smoke in the area from the wildfires (Black Forest, Big Madows RMNP, and Royal Gorge) It made for a mysterious looking sunset.

Today was PACKED full of fun. First we went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. It was really neat but unfortunately it was one of those places that had been stripped of it's natural beauty from being turned into a tourist trap. But it was really cool to be inside a real cliff dwelling.

entrance

We picked a perfect day too! Blue skies and white puffy clouds. Perfect contrasting background for the rusty colored rocks of the cliff dwellings.

Next we headed on up the road to the PIkes Peak Cog railway. What an experience!!! There really are no words to describe it. It really felt like you were on top of the world! We even tried their world famous doughnuts. Note to self though: don't run when on top of Pikes Peak (elevation over 14,000 ft). It'll make you feel like you're gonna suffocate.

Ascending. PIkes Peak Granite

Whistling Marmot

I could have stayed at the top longer! It was AMAZING. The train only allows you 15mins at the top to avoid altitude sickness. So we tried to run around to all sides of the peak to see the views and snap some pictures. Since it was a little over 3 hrs round trip, it was just about time for dinner when we got down. We decided to drive around and we came across an amazing brewery (Lance spotted it, of course). The Colorado Mountain Brewery!

We asked our waitress where a good place would be to watch the sunset behind the peak and she suggested Garden of the Gods. But before we headed over there we thought we would check out old town Manitou Springs. It's adorable! Tons of cute little shops and eateries. PLus they have these little fountains everywhere. I guess they're tapped in the springs.