Howdy Friends! It's been awhile since I've been able to get some time to post my final blog about our fabulous Colorado trip but the Labor Day holiday is now behind us and that means it's "unofficially" the end of summer right? Typically, that would mean the holiday party season would be getting underway but with Covid everything is just a bit off kilter this year so the final quarter of this year is going to look very different than in years past.
Let me go ahead now and round up the final days of our RV Trek across Colorado so that we can move on to Fall Fashion and Fall Home Decor.
Our last stop in Colorado was in Colorado Springs where we stayed for three days. The weather was still holding up and we were so happy that it was still, more or less, cool weather compared to Texas.(About 80 the whole time we were there)
Our first stop was Seven Falls which is a well known tourist attraction. It was a beautiful day and we were able to take the pooch which made her happy. .
I'd been to Seven Falls abut 20 years ago and remember that we rode horses through the park, but now that wasn't an option. We walked up to where you can see the main fall and took pictures, and that was about it. I also remember the falls to be bigger so it was a bit anti-climactic, but still really pretty.
The trip would be great for parents with kids but anyone that is not in good walking health would probably want to take the tram up to this top point, but would not be able to see the main fall as there are about 200 stairs to climb, as you can see from this photo. I'm glad we went as Roger had never been, but I feel seeing it once was enough so we probably wouldn't make the trek again.
The next day we did the drive up to Pike's Peak and that was a VERY different experience. First of all, the views are extraordinary! Amazing! Breathtaking! But, the drive up the 7 mile road to the peak is......treacherous. Honestly, it was scary and I'm glad I wasn't driving. The road is very winding and there are no guard rails. The drop off just gets higher and higher and as you climb, the road gets steeper and steeper. Roger said it was white knuckles all the way.
We stopped at several look out spots along the way and took photos and just took in the view. You really do feel like you're on top of the world.
As we climbed higher, it got increasingly cooler. We went all the way up to the peak, 14, 115 feet up.
Up to where there were no more trees. Up to where the air was 40% thinner than where we normally breath, and you could feel it with every step you took.
Unfortunately, pretty quickly after we got to the top and got out of the car, a storm started to blow over the mountain and we were asked to go back to our vehicles as lightening has a tendency to strike the mountain top, often. They didn't need to tell me twice but I did manage to capture this photo as the storm moved in. Beautiful.
I shot these as we slowly made our way back down. It really was beautiful and I'm so happy we went up, but that road.....
On our last day Roger played golf, I caught up with work laptop, and then for our final night in we went into Manitou Springs, which is about 15 miles from where we were staying, and did some shopping and exploring. We found this quaint little Swiss Restaurant and settled on the patio for some food and wine and much to my delight, they had a bottle of one of my favorite wines in the cellar, and it was fabulous! A Ridge Vineyard 2012 Zinfandel was opened and decanted as we enjoyed our surf & turf meal while Berkeley lay on the patio at our feet watching the sunset. It was a perfect ending to a wonderful trip.
The next day we packed up and headed toward Texas, and it ended up taking about three days to get home. We stopped in Palo Duro Canyon on the way for a day so that we could do some biking in the canyon however, that didn't happen. Instead, my husband went biking because the day we were there it was 107 degrees so I opted to stay in the trailer and get some more work done while he sweated his hiney off in the canyon. That evening, we sat outside, having a glass of wine, and watched the sunset with Berkeley.
It was pretty special, and the trip was fantastic, but I was ready to come home.
We got home and parked the truck and trailer and opted to unload the next morning, as the mercury was sitting at 105 again.
We did so much! Hot springs in Pagosa Springs, 5 rounds of golf, white water rafting, gondola rides in Telluride, Stagecoach rides in Silverton, a Jeep Mountian Tour in Ouray, A open air steam train ride in Durango, Wine tasting in Montrose,the Royal Gorge, Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs, and a fantastic meal and restaurant experience in Crested Butte. It really was awesome. Our take away is this: next August we decided that we'd get more out of the trip if we didn't move the trailer every 3 or 4 days so we will find a really cool RV Park in Durango and use that as a base to do day trips from throughout the month.
It was our first major RV trip and doing a month long was the perfect amount of time. As we get more accustomed to this lifestyle, I can see we would do longer trips.
I leave you now with some famous words by a wonderful Colorado native, John Denver.
"He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say that he got crazy once and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept his memory.
But the Colorado rocky mountain high
I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky
The shadow from the starlight is softer than a lullabye
Rocky mountain high (Colorado)"
Cheers friends! XOXO