Garden of the Gods

Our last stop in Colorado Springs before we went home was Garden of the Gods on Sunday morning. Truly, it was like walking in a garden that God had planted. 

One thing you have to understand about Colorado Springs is the town is situated at the base of the Rocky Mountains. And as you are driving to Colorado from Kansas it's not, "Oh, we've crossed the state line...there are mountains!" Eastern Colorado is as flat as Kansas. I always thought that as we approached the mountains there would be a gradual incline or at least a build up of hills up to the Rockies. But instead it's; prairie....prairie....prairie....BAM MOUNTAINS!!! 

And Garden of the Gods is BAM right there at the bottom! They are huge red rocks that looks as though they've been planted at the foot of the mountains. 

There were so many beautiful places! It was breathtaking! I took more photos here than any other place we visited. It's probably a good thing we didn't come here first because I probably wouldn't have left. I probably would have tried to sweet talk my husband into trying a popular activity at Garden of the Gods.....

....ROCK CLIMBING!! 

Can you see that climber?? Garden of the Gods is free to the public and it's open to all climbers, as long as they notify the park that they are there. The park even gives family rock climbing lessons! Doesn't that sound awesome??? I'd love to learn to rock climb but unfortunately we ran out of time and my husband wouldn't have agreed anyway! 

Though we didn't go rock climbing with hooks and ropes there were plenty of fun places to explore. 

"Are you coming Mom?"

"OOOH that's a tight fit!"

"AAAUUUGGGHHH! I'm stuck!"

"Oh, you silly boys, that's so easy!"

One of the neatest sights was seeing these teeny trees growing in the crack of a rock. 

Can you say tenacity? 

I love Colorado. It's just gorgeous! If the economy was better or if I could find someone to pay me to hike everyday, I could see myself living there. No grain elevators though, oh what would DR do? 

Think I could convince him to raise buffalo? 

Colorado Ghost towns and Waterfalls (lot's o' pics)

Ah, so you have bravely returned to hear about the remainder of our mini vacation in Colorado Springs eh? The last couple days I posted about Pikes Peak and the Cliff Dwellings which kept us busy Saturday morning. After a quick lunch we stopped by the Ghost Town Museum. 

The museum is actually old buildings from a ghost town housed inside. Within each building there were artifacts from the gold rush era; home and saloon furnishings, blacksmiths, general stores, you get the idea. 

The kids especially liked it because there was plenty of stuff for them to TOUCH and they weren't just stuck looking with their hands in their pockets. They climbed on saddles, turned a butter churn, climbed in a carriage, played a song on the player piano and listened in to a conversation on an old telephone. 

A 19th century dentist drill....I think I'd have been toothless! 

That thing looks scary!! 

All around the museum there were characters like this guy who would "talk" to us and give us a some information about their job in the town. 

Well look at that...did you know Indiana printed money? 

We even tried our hand at panning for gold. I think I may have even found a couple of flakes but since I didn't have anything to carry it in I left it for the next tourist to find :) 

After a morning packed full of sight seeing we were pooped! So we crashed in the hotel for a few hours. I would have preferred a nap but my kids were having none of that.....tv all the way for them!! My kids are deprived. There were two tv's in our hotel room and they kept running between them to see what was on both. You can tell we don't have cable! 

Toward dusk, after I finally peeled my kids eyes off the televisions, we headed to Seven Falls. What a beautiful place! It reminded me just a bit of Turkey Run back home in Indiana except, well, the hills are just a bit higher in Colorado! 

This part freaked me out just a bit. If you look close at the photo above you'll see a couple huge boulders surrounded by, what looks like, a mesh net. What was most disconcerting was those boulders were right above where visitors walk to see the falls. Yikes! 

A view with the falls behind us. I love Colorado! 

There is a Native American family that boasts three generations that have danced at the falls. My kids enjoyed it, especially when they chanted and danced to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

You are probably wondering why I'm talking about seeing waterfalls and yet to show you many photos of them. Well, it's because it's really hard to get a view of the entire falls together. You have to climb....a lot...to see see them! There are two sets of steps to view the falls. 

224!! I was dying, but Yahoo practically ran up them! This set took us right along side the falls. And across the falls you climbed 186 steps (or wimped out like me and took the elevator) to get a full view of the falls. 

At dusk lights turn on to make the falls appear to change colors. 

Look at those stairs!! Now, imagine walking up and down all of them with an independent three year old! I was stressing! 

Lovely! 

Okay, I promise, tomorrow's post is the very last one about our Colorado trip. 

I think. 

But come back and check it out. 

Our last step was definitely the neatest stop we made! 

Manitou Cliff Dwellings in Colorado Springs.

After we left Pike's Peak Saturday morning we skipped down the road a bit to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. I have always wanted to see Mesa Verde but right now that's just a little too far away but these were a good alternative. 

If you are ever looking for a good place to go to on vacation I would highly recommend Colorado Springs. There are so many things to do in this area that are so close together. We were able to hit four different locations in one day and we still took an afternoon break at the hotel. 

We were able to walk through most of the structures and see some of the artifacts and get explanations about how the "apartments" were set up. These cliff dwellings were built by the ancient Anasazi people. Yap's checking out some grain grinding stones above and a grain bin is below. 

This is part of the kiva, an underground ceremonial area. 

This is a wall of a three family apartment. The holes are where logs would have been that created the floors and ceilings. The rooms themselves were extremely small; I'd guess roughly 6x6 in some cases with the ceilings being less than 5 feet tall. Either the Anasazi Indians 

Here we are patiently waiting to climb a ladder to check out a second story room. 

These are some petroglyphs that were roughly 12 feet above the ground. The meanings aren't clear but are believed to be symbols for rain. 

Not only are there ancient cliff dwellings at the Manitou site but there is also a pueblo that has been renovated into a museum/gift shop. 

I have ALWAYS wanted to try and bake bread in one of these! Anyone willing to build one in my back yard? LOL 

Bowls 1300 A.D. 

Aren't. These. Gorgeous?!

While some women drool over Fiesta ware, THIS is what I wish I had in my cabinets! I am such a sucker for a beautiful artifact. 

By now it's about lunchtime on our Saturday Colorado excursion and we still had two places left to go that day! We squeezed a lot into one day but there are so many things to do in this town that we could go back for another weekend and visit totally different places! 

Big thumbs up for Colorado Springs!