The drive to Colorado Springs from Golden was only 80 miles, so it was a very easy travel day. Still a bit weary from all the travel and activity over the last month, we were both looking forward to spending 2 weeks in 1 location. Bill booked Garden of the Gods RV Park and it was a primo location with Pikes Peak, Manitou Springs and Garden of the Gods just minutes away. It also had a pool heated to 85 degrees. Wonderful!

(I lived in Denver for almost 2 years, moving there shortly after Dessa and I met. We saw each other every weekend with Dessa coming to Denver most of the time so we could enjoy snowboarding the mountains in the winter or hiking/riding the mountains in the summer. We loved it. However, we loved Colorado Springs even more with one minor exception. For some reason they have decided that they don't want cars driving much faster than your average bicycle – the speed limit on almost all roads is either 25mph or 30mph. And no, I am not complaining simply because I got a speeding ticket for driving 12mph over the limit on a divided 4 lane road.)

The weather was fantastic the whole two weeks we were there, with overnight lows in the 50’s and daytime highs in the low 80’s, so we visited at the perfect time of year. Colorado Springs has lots to offer, it is a medium size city at just under 500,000 people, it has nice shopping, dining and entertainment areas, and it is surrounded by tons of recreational opportunities. The only drawback for me is that it is hard to workout in this altitude. I never really adjusted to the 6000+ elevation.

Garden of the Gods was a lovely wooded campground with plenty of wild life. There was a black squirrel hanging around the trailer hoping for some nuts and one evening we saw a pair of giant raccoons scrounging for food. By the dumpster, there was a sign warning about black bears and just a short walk from the park we saw three mule deer with fawns. They apparently live nearby because we saw them several times. (Its only major downside was that it had terrible Internet. AT&T had almost no coverage on this side of town and the campground Wi-Fi was mostly unusable.)

One of the most amazing things about Colorado Springs was that wherever we went, as soon as we turned back towards the west, Pikes Peak would loom into view. It was so impressive! I’m sure you would get used to the sight, but I never did. Riding the motorcycles up Pikes Peak was the first thing we wanted to do, but the first day they had winds as high as 70 mph at the top, so we waited one more day. As we went through the gate, and paid our $20 to ride up the toll road, we still got a warning from the ranger about the forecasted 40 mph winds at the top that could blow us over. At 14,110 feet, 8000 feet above Colorado Springs, it was also 30 degrees colder making it around 40 degrees. The ride was awesome with lots of curves and switchbacks and it often looked like we were riding straight off the edge of the mountain. It really was cold and windy at the top but the views were fantastic. We each had some hot chocolate and one of the supposedly world famous Pikes Peak donuts (good but not particularly noteworthy. Another example of calling something World Famous simply because lots of people from around the world have eaten them). After watching the Cog train depart we headed back down passing from the bald crown, through the alpine forest and the shivering aspens. Put a bucket list checkmark against another one of the best motorcycle rides in the US.

Garden of the Gods is a free National Park that was maybe five minutes from our RV Park. The land was donated to the city in 1909, with the provision that it would always be a free public park. It is well developed with lots of hiking trails and unlimited photo opportunities. The rock formations were created millions of years ago during a geological upheaval. We visited more than once and it was super hard to narrow the blog pictures down to a reasonable number, but we did our best. The rock formations were awe-inspiring. I can’t describe it nearly as well as Helen Hunt Jackson when she wrote of the park, "You wind among rocks of every conceivable and inconceivable shape and size... all bright red, all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been just stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catastrophe." There are boulders caught in crevasses that look like they might fall at any moment and super thin spires that look ready to crumble, but they have been there for millions of years. Nature is so cool!

I seem to be getting accident prone in my old age, suffering two injuries while hiking. The first incident occurred when I stepped on a rock that decided to fight back. It flipped up and gave me a nice cut and decent bruise on my right ankle. A couple of days later, at Red Rocks, I managed to slip in the loose gravel. I was thrown to my knees and got a big patch of gravel rash on my right shin as well as bruises on both legs. In both cases we carried on with our hiking in spite of my bloody wounds (and not because of any insensitivity on my part. Dessa refused to stop). It didn’t end there…more on my clumsy injuries in the next blog. At Red Rocks we found an old quarry pit filled with water that made a great reflecting pond, and later Bill returned here to film and photograph the blood moon eclipse. We also hiked in Palmer Park where you felt like you were far from the city while actually being right in the center of it.

While we have struggled to find animal life on our hikes, we can usually find bugs. In an effort to not be too repetitive in our photography, we are trying not to bore you with too many bee photos. You will see we managed to find a few other insects to show you, including the biggest bumble bee (we don’t consider this to be the same as a regular bee) I have ever seen. We were taking pictures of a pair of mating bugs that were really cool when he flew up and landed on the same flower. Even a giant bee couldn’t distract them from their business. It was great, we were already set up to take pictures and couldn’t have arranged it any better. Obviously we are easily pleased when it comes to this hobby, and hope you enjoy the results.

Manitou Springs is a nice little touristy town between Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak. It was worth a couple of hours to walk Main Street and look in the shops. We also rode the motorcycles up to Cripple Creek where the casinos are. The ride was beautiful with great curves and the aspens turning colors. At one overlook we could see five mountain ranges in the distance, and we were standing on a sixth.

I played my very first 18 holes of golf on a par three course, and it was fun. I definitely need practice in all aspects of the game, but I wasn’t terrible (Actually she did great! Most of the holes were straightforward but one of them required you to clear 100 yards of water on your drive. Dessa not only cleared the water, she ended up only 15 yards short of the green. Pretty impressive for her first full 18 holes).

Next stop… Santa Fe, New Mexico.