If you recall, my first article was about how Mrs. N and I were able to retire earlier this year.  We had big plans for travel.  Covid had other plans.  We had a two week tour of Portugal and Spain scheduled for April.  CANCELLED.  We had a one week tour of Peru, including Machu Picchu, scheduled for early September.  CANCELLED.  We had scheduled a trip to Colorado Springs in late August to help prepare us for the altitude of Peru.  Even though the main reason for the trip was cancelled, we decided to still go.

Of course, it still didn’t go smoothly:  the Airbnb we had reserved many months ahead cancelled on us a week before the trip.  They said a foster child had been diagnosed with cancer and due to Covid…CANCELLED. Mrs. N was suspicious since the Airbnb was a separate building from their home (so why be worried about the Covid – we weren’t expecting to interact with you anyway), but we said we understand.  The rate we had for the location of that Airbnb was apparently too good to be true; we couldn’t find a comparable one (at least not a week ahead of time).  I still had a gold-level membership with Hilton from my former job and we found a DoubleTree in a good location for a reasonable price (plus free cookies!).  The other thing that didn’t go smoothly was the return trip.  We had a flight connection in Dallas to get home to Dayton, Ohio.  Weather delays caused our flight from Colorado to Dallas to be delayed for hours and our flight to Dayton to be cancelled.  We spent a night in Dallas.  Thankfully, we had travel insurance, which should fully cover the additional cost (claim is still pending).  And we’re retired, so we can afford to waste a day.

But other than that, it was a great trip.  We did some cool hikes, saw cool stuff, ate good food and drank a variety of beer.

Hike #1, Garden of the Gods

Everyone told us that we had to go see the Garden of the Gods.  We arrived there without a specific plan and kind of winged our hike.  We initially walked around the “Central Garden”, which is all concrete sidewalk-like paths, but they tended to be crowded.

One of the formations as you enter Garden of the Gods

 

Look at the top middle

Kissing Camels formation

 

The Central Garden has stroller-friendly paths

We decided to get away from the concrete and the crowds and sought out some “real” hiking paths.  We eventually went on parts of the Scotsman Trail and the Buckskin Charlie Trail.

View from the trail

 

Pike’s Peak is the tan-colored peak since it rises above the tree line

View towards Pike’s Peak

On a later day, we returned to Garden of the Gods to check out Balanced Rock.

Balanced Rock

 

We drove through this tight gap

The road near Balanced Rock

Visit to Manitou Springs

As a reward for the calories burned at Garden of the Gods, we went to Manitou Springs to get some food/beer and do a little shopping.  While in this little city, I realized that this area must be one of STEVE SMITH’s favorite places.  There are many Sasquatch references.

A sign of STEVE SMITH

A shop in Manitou Springs

We went to Manitou Brewing for a meal and beer.  I had an Incline Burger, which was excellent, and we shared a flight of beers.

Good place for food and drink

Manitou Brewing Co

 

One of the beers was called Perky Blonde – a blonde ale made with coffee

A flight of Manitou beers

Manitou Springs is known for its multiple mineral springs located around the city.  After our meal we went around the downtown area and tasted 6 of the 8 springs water.  Supposedly they each have their own unique flavor, but they all tasted about the same to me – some seemed more carbonated than others.

Not quite as pretty as the photo on the tourism website

Stratton Spring

Mrs. N likes to get Christmas ornaments from the different places we travel to.  I found a Sasquatch ornament and had to get it.

STEVE SMITH SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS

My Christmas ornament

A Trip to Pike’s Peak

Besides Garden of the Gods, everyone told us we must go to Pike’s Peak.  Even though we got a SUV rental car, we didn’t want to try driving to the peak.  So, Lovey and I took a four hour tour (via bus). The bus tour turned out to be a good choice.  Due to the Covid, they had removed all the windows of the bus so it was open-air.  This made it easy to take photos along the way.  Although it got colder as we went up to the higher altitude, the bus tour provided blankets and we brought layers to wear.  Did you know there’s an annual race to the top of Pike’s Peak that has been run since 1916?  Our tour was a few days ahead of the race and you could see preparations they were making for it (various signs, hay bales at the turns and porta-potties).  The tour makes a few stops on the way up the mountain.  We started feeling the altitude when we got up to 9,000 feet – I started to get a headache.  We brought plenty of water and kept hydrated, which worked to alleviate any symptoms.

STEVE SMITH statue not toppled by peaceful protestors yet

Sasquatch carving at first stop on the way up to Pike’s Peak

 

I think this reservoir was at about 9,000 ft

A view from another stop on the way up

They’re doing construction on a new visitor complex at the actual peak, so there were some limitations on where we could go.  But we still had a clear view from 14,115 feet.  Our tour guide said we were lucky – just a couple days earlier the smoke from the California fires had caused a haze that limited the view.

My first photo from the peak

 

Another great view from the peak

 

The view behind us

Construction at the Peak

Hike #2, St. Mary’s Falls Trail, North Cheyenne Cañon Park

The St. Mary’s Falls Trail is the most challenging trail we’ve ever done.  It’s one of the top-rated hikes in the North Cheyenne Cañon Park.  This hike starts at about 7,500 ft and goes up to almost 9,000 ft.

You start out from the parking lot (got one of the last spots!) on a wide path that curves around to the St Mary’s Falls trailhead.

The wide path from the parking lot

 

A view early on the trail

The trail mainly follows along a creek that I assume is fed by the St Mary’s Falls.  It wasn’t very crowded and we often felt like we had the trail to ourselves.  It took about 1.5 hours to reach the top of the trail and it’s pretty much a continuous incline that starts off reasonable for the first two miles, but gets steeper for the last mile.  We brought water and snacks along to keep hydrated and energized for the hike.

A small waterfall along the trail

 

Mrs. N’s response to seeing this: Fuck!

A stairway along the trail

After about an hour, Mrs. N found reasons to cuss whenever we turned a corner and found another steep path, steps or switchback; she just wanted to reach the end.  The signage was also a bit misleading.  There’s a sign that says “0.2 mile” left.  As someone wrote on the sign with a marker, it’s actually 0.5 mile.  Another sign said “500 ft” left – apparently measured by the same guy that got the 0.2 mile distance wrong.

We persevered and made it to the top, briefly savored it, then hiked back down.

We made it!

St. Mary’s Falls

 

For some guy who fell to his death nearby

A memorial next to falls

The reward for this hike was another stop at a brewery.  We went to the Colorado Mountain Brewery at their Roundhouse location.  Another good meal (Ale Battered Fish and Chips) and flight of beers.

Their six Flagship beers

Colorado Mountain flight of beers

In part 2, I’ll share our hikes at the Red Rock Canyon Open Space and the Seven Bridges Trail at the North Cheyenne Cañon Park.