Holiday in the Sun
Wednesday. Well, everyone, I'm back from vacation and I have to tell you all that I had a pretty good time. If you remember, faithful readers, right before we were set to leave we started experiencing automotive difficulties with our vehicle. On first look, it appeared that a battery terminal clamp had gone bad due to corrosion, but even after I fixed it the truck still had trouble holding a charge. I drove it over to the local auto parts store where they tested the battery and determined it to be dead. So, I did what I had to do and installed a new car battery as well. Sure, I was a little lighter in the wallet, but at least we knew that we would have our dependable vehicle back in which to travel. Thankfully, we experienced no more vehicle problems for the rest of the trip.
We started our trip on Friday morning by getting up and driving to Colorado Springs, about two hours south from our starting point. Colorado Springs is a nice town, but I find it a bit touristy. I was a bit apprehensive at first about stopping here when we began planning this trip, but since we decided to design this venture around the young ones, this destination seemed like an obvious choice. Plus, as the Mrs. pointed out, we've lived in Colorado for ten years now and never visited any of those places so maybe it was about time.
So, the first thing we did was to take the historical Pike's Peak Cog Railroad up to the top of Pike's Peak. It was a lovely train ride, about three hours round trip with a half-hour stay on top of the peak. The views from the train car were absolutely amazing, and we were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife on the way. We saw a herd of big horn sheep gathering in a clearing to test their pecking order, which according to the guide was quite a rarity. They even stopped the train so we could get a good look. We also saw several marmots along the way, and I spotted the tail end of a deer running off as we approached, but no one else saw it to corroborate my story...
We eventually got to the peak, which was a bit chilly compared to the typical summer weather below. There were also several clouds moving over the peak while we were up there that gave the air a damp feel as well. And while Pike's Peak isn't the tallest mountain in Colorado (that would be Mt. Elbert), the views from the top cannot be dismissed. Perfect serenity in every direction. We snapped some pictures, browsed the gift shop (how would you like that drive to work every day?), and then got back on the train to head back. The return trip was just as pleasant as the way up, however, I think we were all a bit wiped out from the high elevation.
We rejuvenated ourselves by grabbing a quick lunch in Colorado Springs, and then headed back up to the hills to visit Cave of the Winds. Cave of the Winds is a cavern system adjacent to Pike's Peak. It was nice contrasting experiences to be at one moment over 14,000 feet above the ground, then just a short time later be several hundred feet below it. We thought the girls would get a big kick out of going down into a cave, and we were right. You can take crazy spelunking explorations, but we did the standard tour. I've been in more complex cave systems before, but this one was still pretty neat. The girls dug the crazy formations and it's always cool to hear a bit of cave lore. We emerged from the cave unscathed by any bats or bears, so we loaded ourselves back into the truck and headed southwest about an hour to Cañon City where we stayed the night.
Cañon City is not only home to several state correctional facilities (that was kind of creepy, I actually saw a guard with a rifle standing in a tower overlooking the yard), but is also the location of the highest bridge in the world (if the claims are to believed) over Royal Gorge. Now, standing out on the bridge looking down over 1,100 feet is cool enough in itself, but there is actually a lot of other stuff included with the price of admission as well. We took an inclined train down to the bottom of the canyon to check out the view from the bottom, and we also could cross the gorge via suspended tramcar. There was also a petting zoo and a Wild West exhibit that the girls liked as well. After spending a few hours checking out Royal Gorge, we noticed dark clouds coming in so we decided it was time to head back to the truck. Luckily for us, we just made it back to our vehicle when it really started coming down. I mean, like torrential downpour coming down. I felt really bad for those people who got stuck out on the tram halfway across the gorge... the wind was blowing that thing back and forth like crazy. Not exactly the position that I would want to be in suspended twelve hundred feet above the canyon floor...
Oh yeah, we also checked out the Dinosaur Depot in Cañon City, which was conveniently located across the street from the hotel we stayed at. The girls (especially the youngest) really liked seeing the dinosaur exhibits. I, in particular, totally dug the world's only fully fossilized remains of a stegosaurus, the stegosaurus being my favorite dinosaur since I was about my girls' age.
Anyway, from Royal Gorge we headed on southbound to Alamosa, which is remarkable solely for the fact that it is the biggest town next to Great Sand Dunes National Park. We had planned to camp out that night in Sand Dunes, however, since the rain never let up on us and we were going to be arriving late anyway, we decided to stay in Alamosa instead. It rained all night in Alamosa, but we woke up to very pleasant weather the next day.
From Alamosa, we took a short drive into Great Sand Dunes National Park. You can camp in the park in a non-secluded, huddle-with-the-strangers area for a fee, or you can take a 5-mile off-road trail out of the park boundaries and camp how you are supposed to camp for free. So, we set up the tent, unpacked all of our gear and loaded ourselves back up to go play in the sand.
Now, I gotta tell you all that I had a total blast in the sand. We brought a sled with us, so we found a smaller dune a little ways in and let the girls slide down. After a while, the oldest of the two decided that she wanted more thrill to her sledding experience, so we set off to find a more taller, steeper dune. We found a perfect one just a few dunes over, and the sled went much more quickly down the higher incline. Of course, you know who had to keep bringing the sled back up, but it was all good. I was having a lot of fun, and that joy increased exponentially every time I heard the girls giggle as they went down the hill. When we were finished with the sledding, we went back to the smaller dune and made sand castles with our buckets and molds.
After a few hours of being in the direct sun and hot sand, we decided to head to the visitor's center to cool off. We hung out there for a little while and then ate a late lunch. While we were eating, some very dark clouds started rolling in. We decided we had better get back to the campsite. As we began our way back down the 4-wheel drive trail, the weather turned for the worse. We didn't just get rain, we got hailed on. Welcome to Colorado, where at one moment you can be playing in the sand and sun, and the next you can be pelted by chunks of ice while lighting goes off all around you.
Since the weather report said there would be "an afternoon storm turning to partly cloudy in the evening" we tried to wait it out. However, after almost two hours of waiting for the rain to break, we decided we had better give up. Even if the rain did eventually stop, the temperature had dipped into the low 40s, and that cold coupled with the wetness would probably not be the optimal camping atmosphere for the girls to have to endure. So, the Mrs. and I ran out in the rain and hastily folded up the tent and packed up our gear. The girls were totally bummed since we had planned to camp out for two nights but got rained out on both, but being able to swim another night in the hotel helped a little bit to lift their spirits.
Monday was spent driving back home. Although we didn't get to go camping, I still had a total blast. I really needed a vacation like that. Not just time off, but time off spent having fun and completely doing away with the regular routine. I loved being able to spend time with my family, and I hope that the girls were able to store away some pretty good memories themselves. Too bad we can't do more of this kind of thing.
I had yesterday off as well, which I pretty much spent doing laundry and getting my oldest daughter ready for her first day of second grade (which is today). I can't believe how quickly the summer came and went. However, I have to say that this has easily been one of the best summers I've had in years. It will be sad to see it go, but I'm hoping that this wave of awesomeness carries over into the autumn as well.
Now, I'm back at work and I have a huge pile of stuff to go through and get taken care of. I was really busy before last week, and it appears that none of it subsided in my absence. On an up note, though, before I left on my trip I helped a lady here with a problem she had with her cell phone provider. You see, in another life I once worked for a huge telecommunications company and picked up a few tricks on how to get things done when the customer care center refuses to actually take care of its customers. Anyway, the tricks I shared with her must have worked because she brought me a tray of peanut butter and chocolate brownies this morning. Mmmmm.... yummy.... Now that actually makes the return to work not all that bad...
We started our trip on Friday morning by getting up and driving to Colorado Springs, about two hours south from our starting point. Colorado Springs is a nice town, but I find it a bit touristy. I was a bit apprehensive at first about stopping here when we began planning this trip, but since we decided to design this venture around the young ones, this destination seemed like an obvious choice. Plus, as the Mrs. pointed out, we've lived in Colorado for ten years now and never visited any of those places so maybe it was about time.
So, the first thing we did was to take the historical Pike's Peak Cog Railroad up to the top of Pike's Peak. It was a lovely train ride, about three hours round trip with a half-hour stay on top of the peak. The views from the train car were absolutely amazing, and we were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife on the way. We saw a herd of big horn sheep gathering in a clearing to test their pecking order, which according to the guide was quite a rarity. They even stopped the train so we could get a good look. We also saw several marmots along the way, and I spotted the tail end of a deer running off as we approached, but no one else saw it to corroborate my story...
We eventually got to the peak, which was a bit chilly compared to the typical summer weather below. There were also several clouds moving over the peak while we were up there that gave the air a damp feel as well. And while Pike's Peak isn't the tallest mountain in Colorado (that would be Mt. Elbert), the views from the top cannot be dismissed. Perfect serenity in every direction. We snapped some pictures, browsed the gift shop (how would you like that drive to work every day?), and then got back on the train to head back. The return trip was just as pleasant as the way up, however, I think we were all a bit wiped out from the high elevation.
We rejuvenated ourselves by grabbing a quick lunch in Colorado Springs, and then headed back up to the hills to visit Cave of the Winds. Cave of the Winds is a cavern system adjacent to Pike's Peak. It was nice contrasting experiences to be at one moment over 14,000 feet above the ground, then just a short time later be several hundred feet below it. We thought the girls would get a big kick out of going down into a cave, and we were right. You can take crazy spelunking explorations, but we did the standard tour. I've been in more complex cave systems before, but this one was still pretty neat. The girls dug the crazy formations and it's always cool to hear a bit of cave lore. We emerged from the cave unscathed by any bats or bears, so we loaded ourselves back into the truck and headed southwest about an hour to Cañon City where we stayed the night.
Cañon City is not only home to several state correctional facilities (that was kind of creepy, I actually saw a guard with a rifle standing in a tower overlooking the yard), but is also the location of the highest bridge in the world (if the claims are to believed) over Royal Gorge. Now, standing out on the bridge looking down over 1,100 feet is cool enough in itself, but there is actually a lot of other stuff included with the price of admission as well. We took an inclined train down to the bottom of the canyon to check out the view from the bottom, and we also could cross the gorge via suspended tramcar. There was also a petting zoo and a Wild West exhibit that the girls liked as well. After spending a few hours checking out Royal Gorge, we noticed dark clouds coming in so we decided it was time to head back to the truck. Luckily for us, we just made it back to our vehicle when it really started coming down. I mean, like torrential downpour coming down. I felt really bad for those people who got stuck out on the tram halfway across the gorge... the wind was blowing that thing back and forth like crazy. Not exactly the position that I would want to be in suspended twelve hundred feet above the canyon floor...
Oh yeah, we also checked out the Dinosaur Depot in Cañon City, which was conveniently located across the street from the hotel we stayed at. The girls (especially the youngest) really liked seeing the dinosaur exhibits. I, in particular, totally dug the world's only fully fossilized remains of a stegosaurus, the stegosaurus being my favorite dinosaur since I was about my girls' age.
Anyway, from Royal Gorge we headed on southbound to Alamosa, which is remarkable solely for the fact that it is the biggest town next to Great Sand Dunes National Park. We had planned to camp out that night in Sand Dunes, however, since the rain never let up on us and we were going to be arriving late anyway, we decided to stay in Alamosa instead. It rained all night in Alamosa, but we woke up to very pleasant weather the next day.
From Alamosa, we took a short drive into Great Sand Dunes National Park. You can camp in the park in a non-secluded, huddle-with-the-strangers area for a fee, or you can take a 5-mile off-road trail out of the park boundaries and camp how you are supposed to camp for free. So, we set up the tent, unpacked all of our gear and loaded ourselves back up to go play in the sand.
Now, I gotta tell you all that I had a total blast in the sand. We brought a sled with us, so we found a smaller dune a little ways in and let the girls slide down. After a while, the oldest of the two decided that she wanted more thrill to her sledding experience, so we set off to find a more taller, steeper dune. We found a perfect one just a few dunes over, and the sled went much more quickly down the higher incline. Of course, you know who had to keep bringing the sled back up, but it was all good. I was having a lot of fun, and that joy increased exponentially every time I heard the girls giggle as they went down the hill. When we were finished with the sledding, we went back to the smaller dune and made sand castles with our buckets and molds.
After a few hours of being in the direct sun and hot sand, we decided to head to the visitor's center to cool off. We hung out there for a little while and then ate a late lunch. While we were eating, some very dark clouds started rolling in. We decided we had better get back to the campsite. As we began our way back down the 4-wheel drive trail, the weather turned for the worse. We didn't just get rain, we got hailed on. Welcome to Colorado, where at one moment you can be playing in the sand and sun, and the next you can be pelted by chunks of ice while lighting goes off all around you.
Since the weather report said there would be "an afternoon storm turning to partly cloudy in the evening" we tried to wait it out. However, after almost two hours of waiting for the rain to break, we decided we had better give up. Even if the rain did eventually stop, the temperature had dipped into the low 40s, and that cold coupled with the wetness would probably not be the optimal camping atmosphere for the girls to have to endure. So, the Mrs. and I ran out in the rain and hastily folded up the tent and packed up our gear. The girls were totally bummed since we had planned to camp out for two nights but got rained out on both, but being able to swim another night in the hotel helped a little bit to lift their spirits.
Monday was spent driving back home. Although we didn't get to go camping, I still had a total blast. I really needed a vacation like that. Not just time off, but time off spent having fun and completely doing away with the regular routine. I loved being able to spend time with my family, and I hope that the girls were able to store away some pretty good memories themselves. Too bad we can't do more of this kind of thing.
I had yesterday off as well, which I pretty much spent doing laundry and getting my oldest daughter ready for her first day of second grade (which is today). I can't believe how quickly the summer came and went. However, I have to say that this has easily been one of the best summers I've had in years. It will be sad to see it go, but I'm hoping that this wave of awesomeness carries over into the autumn as well.
Now, I'm back at work and I have a huge pile of stuff to go through and get taken care of. I was really busy before last week, and it appears that none of it subsided in my absence. On an up note, though, before I left on my trip I helped a lady here with a problem she had with her cell phone provider. You see, in another life I once worked for a huge telecommunications company and picked up a few tricks on how to get things done when the customer care center refuses to actually take care of its customers. Anyway, the tricks I shared with her must have worked because she brought me a tray of peanut butter and chocolate brownies this morning. Mmmmm.... yummy.... Now that actually makes the return to work not all that bad...
posted by john at 3:30 PM
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