Colorado Weekend - Day Two - The Ride

September 22, 2008
Fort Collins, Co

Day Two - Part One - The Ride

I have too many pictures for this day to put in a single slide show so there are three associated with Day Two: The Ride, Cripple Creek, Garden of the Gods.

We were up early looking out the window at Pikes Peak, wondering how the weather was and where The Ride would take us. We didn't have much of a plan - head west and up - figure out which direction to go once we got to Woodland Park just a few miles away. The morning was chilly and bright.

We had a continental breakfast at the motel before leaving. We met a group of four couples out of Georgia. They have been vacationing together in a new place every year for twelve years. They were friendly and fun, the way southern folk are. We enjoyed their company. They were going to ride the COG Railroad up Pikes Peak that day.

The road north and west out of Woodland Park took us past Divide to Florissant with a good view of the new fallen snow on northwest face of Pikes Peak. We stopped at a point of interest near Florissant to stretch our legs and warm our fingers. From Florissant, we could tell the mountains would be too hazy for good pictures that day. The panoramic view from Hartsell, a little further west is fairly amazing on a clear day.

The road to Cripple Creek is out of Divide so we back-tracked a bit and took one of the most scenic 18 mile back roads in Colorado. We were delighted to see the aspens were beginning to change and there was color in the scrub oak as well. It was a cold drive. Cripple Creek is nestled in the high country on the west side of Pikes Peak. It is an old gold-mining town. Main street used to be lined with curio shops, antique stores, restaurants, bakeries, ice cream parlors and museums. Now, it is a casino town and while many of the original buildings are there, very little remains of the charming old city. Even the Brass Ass is all slot machines now, folks. We looked for a restaurant, finally settling on a mediocre breakfast and decent coffee in Buffalo Billy's Casino.

Nope. Neither one of us cared about the slot machines. Didn't drop so much as a nickel.

We saw some interesting characters on the early morning streets. Notably, a white-haired woman with a heavily painted face, in her seventies if I had to guess, not much taller than I am, dressed in a red mini-dress, white windbreaker (longer than the dress), skinny legs sticking out of black cowboy boots. We saw several men who were a throwback to by-gone days, long hair, handlebar mustaches, whiskers, dressed classic cowboy style. Yeah, they could have been casino employees in costume - but I don't think so.

I took some pictures of a Soldier's Memorial sculpted out of sand. Parts of it have been destroyed but the detail and size and scope of it was fairly awesome. I was glad to see the Old Homestead (whorehouse) Museum on Myers Avenue survived and is nestled up against the parking garage of one of the casinos. The train still runs to Victor, but we didn't ride it this time. We thought we might ride the motorcycle to Victor but as we were suiting up, a soft, slushy hail and rain began to fall. It was a cold, sort of damp ride part of the way back to Woodland Park. The leathers protected us well. Actually, it was all rather exhilarating. The ride to Cripple Creek was everything I thought it would be and more.

As we descended into Manitou Springs, we noticed the sidewalks of town were packed, with school kids sitting on curbs (we honked and they cheered - ha!) and teenagers marching down sidewalks in large groups with green and gold painted hair. The streets were lined with vehicles all the way to our motel (several blocks). We had thought we might walk the streets and window shop but decided against it when we found out it was Homecoming.

Instead, we stretched our legs, waited out a rain shower and made the short ride to The Garden of the Gods. We walked the paths, took pictures, watched rock climbers and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at one of our favorite places while storms built over the mountains and rumbled a warning that echoed off the rocks. The Garden of the Gods is hard to describe and pictures don't do it justice. If you are ever in the Springs - see it for yourself. Entrance to the park is free forever according to the wish of Charles Elliott Perkins, whose children donated the land to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909.

Garden of the Gods: http://www.gardenofgods.com/education/index_175.cfm

It did not rain on us, but soon our legs grew weary. We went back to the motel, and again relaxed in our lawn chairs with a beer while the sun sank low and storm clouds obscured the view of Pikes Peak. Again, we walked the short distance to Savelli's for dinner. We noticed the pasta dishes going by the night before as we were enjoying our pizza. We ordered two spaghetti dishes and split an eggplant Parmesan dish and bread sticks. Scrumptious!

As we talked about our day over dinner, we decided the day and this vacation was not about cities or shopping or any destination - it was about the ride. We enjoyed it thoroughly and looked forward to the next day's adventures.

Day Two Mileage = approximately 109 miles