Colorado in a week

My friend Anne and I went to Colorado for a vacation.  Here is my synopsis, in case you are ever in Colorado and are looking for things to do:

Day 1:  Garden of the Gods

Our first stop was the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  This place was a FREE park where the sandstone rocks rise up 300+ feet among the trees with Pikes Peak peaking out behind the formations.  The park has trails that are easy to walk on and provided fantastic views of the formations.  Being in Colorado under 3 hours, walking was slightly harbored from the higher elevation then I am used to at 69 feet above sea level. 

The rocks allow for mountain climbing/scaling, provided that the experienced climber attain a permit first.  We did see two climbers which was pretty neat.  The falling rock is a must see stop when you first pull into the park from one of the entrances.

There are even some big horn sheep on the premises. 

http://www.gardenofgods.com/home/index.cfm

Day 2:  Great Sand Dunes 

A MUST see if you are in south Colorado.  The park was $3 per person. We drove for an hour through such thick fog - and then we get out of the fog, and we see the sand, what an amazing sight. We parked the car and started towards the 30 acres of sand dunes.  There are no paths - you make your own as you climb up the sand.  I am not sure if it was because it was only my second day of the higher altitude, but the sand dunes kicked my butt.  Granted, I am not in the best shape, but I was so out of breath walking up the hills.  I had hoped to maybe get near "high peak" which is 650 feet high, but probably got about half way or a little more.  (star dune is 750 feet).  I am sure with more time and more water, I would have, but we were unprepared, and had split the water.  So we just walked the ridge lines and enjoyed the beauty of this natural area.  It made me feel so small among all that nothingness.

 

It is utterly amazing that a place like this exists in our country.  Even more amazing that people didn't know about it or understand about the natural phenomenon.

http://www.nps.gov/grsa/

Day 3:  Royal Gorge Bridge & Pikes Peak

The Royal Gorge Bridge is located in Canon City.  When we decided to add it to our agenda, we just wanted to walk over the bridge.  They have a special if you purchase your ticket from 7-8:30am for about $15 then you get full park access after 10am.  From 7 - 8:30 only the bridge is open to drive or walk over.  We drove over it first - which was very scary at first.  The wooden planks creaked the whole 10mph about 955 feet above the Arkansas River.  This suspension bridge is remarkable that it was the highest suspension bridge in the world until 2003 (then a bridge in China took the lead) and it was built in 1929.  There are 1292 planks covering 1260 feet long and 18 feet wide. 

Also within this park, there are other attractions such as Aerial Tram, Incline Railway, Skycoaster and petting zoo.   The fees are generally about $25 per person and would not be a full day's worth of activities.  I did not partake in the attractions - since we had other plans this day and didn't want to come back after 10am. 

http://www.royalgorgebridge.com/



Next up was Pike's Peak.  You can hike, drive or take the railroad up to the top.  The mountain raises 14,110 feet.  We elected to take the COG railway which was about 90 minutes in each direction.  Our luck would have it, we had front row seats going up.  Unobstructed views of the winding and steep tracks, the woods, rocks, and other side views made this experience even better.  The conductor suggests that you sip water going up to help with elevation sickness - the air at the top of the mountain is only 60% of that of sea level.  The temperature at the top rarely goes above 40 degrees Fahrenheit - and when we went it was about 33 degrees.  They allowed us to walk around for about half an hour before we had to head back down.  They tend to limit this time as more time affects people - including me -  I definitely suffered altitude sickness.  Up top, the views can span 4 states on a clear day.  Inside the visitor center they sell many items - including doughnuts which were surprisingly good.   http://www.pikes-peak.com/page/122.aspx

Day 4:  Rocky Mountains & New Belgium Brewery

The main road going through Rocky Mountain National Park is Highway 34 - also known as Trail Ridge Road that runs 48 miles from Estes Park to Grand Lake.  This scenic road is quite amazing.  The valleys of the park are at an elevation of 6,    and the road inclines no more than 7% until it reaches 12,183 feet!.  11 miles of the road are above the tree line (11,500 feet) and the views of all sides of the road were breath taking!  There was one point, when you near the top, perhaps for about 40 feet - that there is nothing on either side of the road - well, just cliffs on both sides.  Once you are up that high, the environment is similar to that of the Canadian or Alaskan Arctic. The road closes from certain points in the late fall to late spring as the road conditions could be treacherous - so if you want to drive it, do check before heading out there.  We really lucked out and the road was open when we went.

Other items of interest in the park is the view of the Contenential Divide - where water draining either moves to the East or to the West - which also affect the landscape of the different sections of the mountains in the park.  There are several small glaciers and permanent snowcaps, 150 lakes, and 359 miles of trails.  Longs Peak is the highest peak in the park topping 14,259 feet and of course many animals can be seen including elk, big horn sheep and moose (we only saw elk).

Allow at least half a day to drive the roads (there is also the Old Fall River Road, with inclines up to 16% and tight curves) and if you are there for several days - hike!  The entry fee is $20 per 'regular' vehicle and is valid for 7 days.  http://www.nps.gov/romo/

Later that day we had a reservation at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins.  This was a FREE tour that lasted about 90 minutes.  The tour includes some history and about 5 samples of beer throughout the tour (I think the sample size was about 5 oz).  The tour shows the different steps in the beer making process and ends with a ride down a slide (optional) and then time in the sampling room.  I did go down the slide :)  In the room, we were given more history about the beer we were sampling (varies by tour guide) and were allowed to write postcards to be sent by New Belgium (they pay for postage!).   http://www.newbelgium.com/home.aspx

Day 5:  Anheuser-Bush Tour & Denver Breweries

Anheuser-Bush in Fort Collins was huge.  A drastic change from New Belgium.  Although the process for beer making is somewhat similar, it was just done on a much larger scale with several variations.  This FREE tour was also about 90 minutes.  We started with seeing the Clydesdales and ended sampling beer at the end in their large hospitality tasting room/patio.  We were able to taste 4 beers (although I don't think they were counting).  I elected not to take the first of Bud Light Lime, since I do not like that - and started off with 11 oz Michelob Ultra (Michelob Light I liked from my taste test), then went to Budweiser, a quick taste of the Bacardi Sangria and then a sample of blueberry beer. http://www.budweisertours.com/tours.htm

Later that day we headed to Denver.  Denver has a lot of Micro-Breweries.  We probably tried 4 of 5 of them.  I am not a beer connoisseur, and some of them I had a hard time drinking, others were pretty good.

Day 6:  Corn Maze & Head Home

Somehow I screwed up this day - I made an appointment for a free tour at the Denver mint - but of course they are not open on the weekends, so I am not sure how I thought that it worked.  I was very disappointed to realize, at the last minute, that we were unable to go.  So we headed to Littleton where the Denver Botanical Gardens has another location that they use for special seasonal events - such as the corn maze.  The corn maze is 8 acres and one of the most attended mazes in the country.  The maze was $10 for adults.  I grew up near an apple picking/pumpkin picking farm that also did corn mazes (not this big) and they 'haunt' it at night - so this stop wasn't a brand new experience for me, but it was still a lot of fun.  I mean, what isn't fun about trying to find your way out of a corn maze?  I can see how younger kids (teenagers) would have a fantastic time trying to find their friends or compete to get out first.   Unfortunately for me, I fell - at probably the safest thing I did all week - and sprained my ankle.  Lucky for me however, that it was the last day of vacation!

http://www.botanicgardens.org/content/corn-maze