Day 96-98, June 6-8: MANITOU SPRINGS, CO
Manitou Springs sits at the foot of Pikes Peak. It is a small resort town with a population of 4,980 and an elevation of 6,320 feet. This area is best known for the naturally carbonated mineral springs that bubble from the earth. The springs made Manitou a leading spa area and contributed greatly to the successful development of Colorado Springs.
We will be spending three nights here. After 7.5 hours and 280 miles we arrived at Pikes Peak RV Park in Manitou Springs, Colorado.
PIKES PEAK RV PARK
The RV park we are staying at is on the main street a few blocks from the historic section of town where the quaint shops and cafes are. The RV park is small with about 58 sites. The sites are crammed together not leaving very much space between trailers. We are right along a small creek, but almost on top of our neighbor. In fact our awning almost touches the neighbor’s slide out. But it is comfortable and pleasant. We get a free newspaper every morning. Across from our site is a beautiful stone house where the owner lives.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under COLORADO to see a review and more pictures of this RV park at http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
MANITOU SPRINGS
There are several areas around town where the mineral springs bubble up through fountains or pumps. The water is free to the public.
The mineral springs, resort developments, vacation attractions, quaint houses, shops and cafes draws visitors year-around.
The historic district has an art-colony atmosphere, cute shops and great restaurants. We spent a lot of time there going through the shops. We found and bought some neat decor for our garden. We ate at some great cafes too. Hanging on the lamp posts along the main street in historic downtown where various works of art by the local school children. Very charming.
PIKES PEAK COG RAILWAY
It was going to be a hot day; 95 degrees. So we decided to take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway 14,115 feet up to the top of Pikes Peak where it would be cooler. We had a small lunch at the depot before boarding the train. The train ride was very nice and scenic. It was a short train with only two cars. The seats in each car faced each other, so we had a nice conversation with the people sitting across from us.
There was some very nice scenery riding up and it was frustrating because the scenery was quite different on the other side of the car, but you could not get up and go take a picture. We had the same seats going back down, so you still don’t get a chance to see all the different views of the scenery. It took about an hour to reach the top and we had less than an hour at the top to take pictures and check out the gift shop. It was cold and breezy at the top and had to put on a long sleeve shirt. Didn’t need a jacket, but it was cold enough for one. We were glad to be away from the heat.
We 'switched' to another track at this point to let the descending train pass by.At the top, when I got off of the train, I was extremely dizzy, light headed and nauseated. I could hardly walk around to take pictures. I had to hold on to Dave and stop all the time to catch my breath. I felt like I was drunk. What I had was ‘altitude sickness’. At 14,000 feet, its no wonder. Dave was fine, but it really affected me. It was an awful feeling, so I was anxious to get back on the train and get down off this mountain. But the views from the top were spectacular and I was able to take lots of pictures.
Katharine Lee Bates visit to the top of Pikes Peak inspired her to write the song "America the Beautiful".We had a different view coming back down and I took more pictures. We returned to Manitou Springs and the 95 degree temps. This was the last hot day during our stay in Colorado. The rest of our stay would be cooler, cloudy and rain.
GARDEN OF GODS
Garden of Gods is in Colorado Springs. This is a fascinating garden of sandstone rock formations on 1,391 acres at the base of Pikes Peak (where the Great Plains meets the Rockies). Railroad magnate Charles Elliot Perkins purchased this parkland in 1879. He later bequeathed it to the city of Colorado Springs with the stipulation that it remain open and free to the public. We drove in one entrance past the Balanced Rock and drove on the Juniper Way Loop to the visitor center. Then we returned to the loop and parked at the main parking lot. There we walked about 1.5 miles on the Perkins Central Garden Trail in the heart of the park where the highest formations are.
It was a cool day with dark thunderstorm clouds over us. It did rain at one point, but not for long. It was a pleasant, enjoyable walk with some very picturesque sights. We saw several people rock climbing. It brought back memories of when I first visited the Garden of Gods with a past friend who was a rock climber at the time. I was able to watch him and his friends ‘rock climb’ a few of these formations. That was about 35 years ago.
Our next destination is Estes Park near Rocky Mountain National Park.
Day 99-104, June 9-13: ESTES PARK, CO
Estes Park is another small resort town with a population of 5,413 and an elevation of 7,522 feet. Pioneer Joel Estes settled in this mountainous area around 1860. But long before he settled here, this area, abundant with game, had attracted Kit Carson and his group of trappers and many American Indian tribes.
The area surrounding Estes Park is part of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park is also cradled in the center of more than 50 peaks reaching 12,000 feet.
We will be spending 5 nights in Estes Park and we will be visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and the Denver Zoo.
After 3.25 hours and 140 miles we arrived at Elk Meadow RV Park in Estes Park, Colorado.
ELK MEADOW RV PARK
This is a nice RV Park with awesome views of the surrounding hills and snow capped mountains. The sites are out in the open except for one row that has shady pine trees at each site. Fortunately we were assigned a site in that row. It’s a back in and we are between a big rig and a large trailer, so we kind of disappear in between these two. So far there are no trailers behind these 3 trailers so it feels open and not too cramped. We have free WiFi with a strong signal but a very bad connection. And cable TV that is only basic (about 20 channels) and not the 50+ that was advertised.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under COLORADO to see a review and more pictures of this RV park http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
The road leading into Rocky Mountain National Park is right next to the RV park. We visited this park twice. The first time was in the late afternoon on the day we arrived. We had enough time to stop at the visitor center before it closed and enough day light to drive the Bear Lake Road (about 50 miles round trip) that dead ends at Bear Lake. There were some nice views of the snowcapped mountains. We will visit the park in a day or two and drive on the Trail Ridge Road. This road crosses through the park from east to west The highest point on the road is 12,183 feet. We hope to do a little hiking too.
Rocky Mountain National Park preserves and protects 416 square miles of rock ribbed wilderness that encompasses four distinct ecosystems of the southern Rocky Mountains. There are more than 350 miles of trails throughout the park and many opportunities to view wildlife such as elk, bighorn sheep and moose. It is home to 70 peaks that soar above 12,000 feet. Hallett Peak lies along the Continental Divide.
Enlarge (click on it) the above picture to see the Bighorn sheep.
We returned to the National Park a few days later, but unfortunately a storm rolled in over that weekend and brought lots of rain. Most of Trail Ridge Road was closed. Probably because that storm also brought snow. We drove as far as Rainbow Curve, where the road was closed, and lost our view because we were inside a cloud and there was indeed snow all around us. In fact it was raining and partly snowing! So we missed all the great views on our second trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, but we did see some great scenery. We also saw elk and bighorn sheep. We never got to do any hiking because the weather was so bad. We will have to visit this area again on another trip.
DENVER ZOO
We had one day that was warm and sunny. We decided to drive into Denver and visit the Denver Zoo. We had visited this zoo several years ago. We thought it was an excellent zoo and wanted to visit it again. This zoo has more than 3,500 animals representing more than 650 species. They also have some rare animals that we have never seen before. Exhibit areas include Predator Ridge, Primate Panorama and Tropical Discovery.
There was a huge area that was under construction. On the wall that surrounded this area were sketches showing what the new Asian Tropics would look like. It looked spectacular and we must come back in 2012 when it is finished.
We spent about four hours visiting this zoo. The last hour of our visit we notice some really black thunderheads forming and just as we were leaving the zoo, those clouds opened up and it poured. Those thunderstorms just got worse and the next day we saw on the news that there were thunderstorm and flood warnings in Denver all day. So we picked a good day during our stay to visit the zoo.
This is an animal that we have never seen before or heard of. He is called a FOSSA from Madagascar. He is a carnivore that is related to the Mongoose. He hunts lemurs. This guy is called Dorian and he is 4 years old.ESTES PARK
We had bad weather during most of our stay here in Estes Park with an occasional thunder storm and lots of rain.. The temps also cooled down and it was real cold during the night. It got down to the high 30’s one night. We woke up to ice crystals on our car windows. There was also fog on most mornings.
The Fall River runs through part of historic downtown, then runs into The Big Thompson River which runs through the rest of historic downtown and eventually runs into Estes Lake. Well, both those rivers were really raging from all the snow melt off. With all the rain, they were almost flowing over the banks. We noticed a lot of sand bags in front of the shops that border the rivers. Estes Park and the rivers were in the Denver news station several times. It was exciting to watch those rivers raise and then decrease during our stay in Estes Park. It never did flood the town, but came pretty close.
We attended a few events in Estes Park. One was their local Farmers Market at the fairgrounds and the other was the 20th Annual Wool Market also at the fairgrounds. This event was interesting. We saw several alpacas, llamas, and sheep and piles of raw wool that was shorn off of some of these animals. At the craft area they were selling this raw wool and spinning tools and dyes to make yarn out of the raw wool. They were also selling all kinds of wool yarns and other yarns. I had a field day here checking out the different colorful yarns and buying some of it.
STANLEY HOTEL
We had to stop and check out this hotel in Estes Park. Stephen King stayed in this hotel and this is the place that inspired him to create the OVERLOOK HOTEL and write ‘THE SHINING’. The Shining was his third novel. None of the scenes for The Shining was shot at this hotel. There was not enough snow at the time of the making of this movie and it was too close to town. But in 1996 the six-hour mini series, where Stephen King was the Executive Producer and Screenplay Writer, was shot at this hotel.
The Stanley Hotel was featured as one of America’s most haunted hotels and with the numerous stories from visitors and staff, the Stanley Hotel continues to “shine” today, as it did in 1909 when it first opened.
Our next destination is Wyoming. We will be spending five days in Wyoming visiting the Handcart Pioneer Memorial near the Rawlins area, and the Grand Teton National Park.
WYOMING facts: Wyoming entered the Union in 1890 as the 44th state. Wyoming covers 97,818 square miles and has a population of 544,270.
State Motto: "Equal rights"
State Nickname: “The Equality or Cowboy State”
State Capital: Cheyenne
State Flower: Indian Paintbrush (1917)
State Bird: Western Meadowlark (1927)
State Animal: Bison (1985)
State Tree: Cottonwood (1947)
State Gem: Jade (1967)
State Song: “Wyoming” (1955)
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