A little bit of Colorado Springs

Mark's Mom came out to visit for a week and so we finally got around to seeing some of the sites here or near Colorado Springs. We have been here for 11 months now but have spent most of that time hanging out locally and playing with Jared. So now that we have had nice weather and visitors we went to check out the sites.

Pikes Peak:

We live about 35 minutes away from the base of Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is over 14,000 feet and what is amazing is that there is a paved road all the way up to the top except like the last 2 miles. Its a 19 mile drive up to the top with amazing views all the way up. At the top there is gift store and restaurant. They sell donuts that are "donuts made at the highest altitude" and cost 2.99 each! But we all ate one anyway. They were way overrated.

"Purple Mountain Majesties"

Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote "America The Beautiful" was inspired to write the song after standing atop Pikes Peak and enjoying the view. It is spectacular view.

The Broadmoor Hotel:
The Broadmoor Hotel was built in 1918 and is an amazing place. It is a 5 star luxury hotel. While we were there last week the Women's US Open (Golf) was being held there. It is that gorgeous. The neighborhood around is full of large houses with beautiful architecture with really large lots. There are 3 golf courses, a lake, and 12 tennis courts. The view of the mountains is great. We walked around the grounds and checked out some of the stores.

The Royal Gorge:
The Gorge is about 1 hour 20 minutes away from Colorado Springs and a really fun place to visit. There is an Aerial tram, an incline railway, a Sky coaster (they put you in a harness laying on your tummy and swing you out over the Gorge) a carousel, and lots of other fun things. The Gorge was made by the Arkansas River.

There is a wooden suspension bridge about 1,000 feet up, well the planks are wooden so its really loud when cars drive across it and the planks shake a lot.

Sue and Jared

We rode the aerial tram across the Gorge. (that's the shadow of the tram)
In the right corner you can see part of the Arkansas River.



The Arkansas River is rated as a class 5 river for rafters.
We saw a couple of groups of rafters and hope that we can go one day.



We rode down on the incline railway which was built in 1931 and is at a 45-degree angle!
It is the steepest incline railway in America and is still considered one of the most difficult structures ever built.





Looking up to the top.
You ride in these trains that are a lot like cages with just enough space to stand up in them.



The view of the bridge from the bottom of the Gorge.



We ended the day riding the Carousel.
I love Carousels and Jared seemed to really like it too.

We had a lot of fun with Sue and can't wait for my Mom to come out next week.