Our 'big' vacation this year was to Colorado. We left on a Saturday morning and made our way to Iowa City, via the Quad cities where we stopped at Sunderbruch park to do a little bike ride.
Upon arrival in Iowa City we street-parked/camped in front of Alex's cousin's house. We enjoyed pizza and catching up! The next day we were awake early so we unloaded the bikes and were able to ride and check out some of the University campus, which we had mostly to ourselves, on an early Sunday morning, with school now out of session. Some of you may know I am a University of Illinois alum, but I still enjoyed our tour of the Hawkeye stadium, downtown and quads.
Back on the road, we made our way to Gretna, NE where we stayed at a KOA (& would stay there again on the way home-which, oddly, makes that campground our most visited campground of all time!). The next day, Monday, was the longest travel day of our whole trip. But when we saw those mountains looming just past Denver, we were EXCITED. We pulled into the Garden of Gods RV Resort in the evening and prepared to spend 4 nights visiting the sights and biking the mountains of Colorado Springs. The weather was definitely chilly. The mid section of Colorado (including Colorado Springs, Denver and Estes) had just had a late spring snow storm the weekend before we arrived. So there was still snow on the peaks, but not at lower elevations. There was evidence though, as the trees which had already leafed had trouble bearing the weight of all that wet snow and there were branches down everywhere in town.
On Tuesday we visited the Garden of Gods. We started off on the Perkins central garden trail, which was the main "drag" but when we went up the Siamese twins trail, the kids really got to climb all over. It was awesome! We finish up at Balanced rock. We had some time to kill, so we took at unplanned trip to see the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. A bit of a tourist trap, but it did the job required (killed time) and then we headed over to Red Rock Canyon to do some bike riding in the evening. There was a couple of women hiking with a beautiful siberian husky dog...off leash. The dog seemed pretty well trained, however, it was running very far ahead of them. At one point we saw the dog take off up the mountain to chase deer. When we turned our bikes around to head back, the owners were still whistling for their dog. Sadly, we have our doubts they'll ever see it again.
On Wednesday we went to the Royal Gorge. This amazing suspension bridge was built in 1929 and remains America's highest bridge at 1053 feet above the Arkansas river. We rode the Gondola across one way and walked the bridge back. No one was willing to try the zip line.
At this point, we (read: I) had been hoping/checking all week for Pikes Peak Highway to open to the Summit but when it didn't seem it would, we decided we had better go as far as we could. So we drove over to the entrance station and made it at 3:50 just before the gates closed at 4. (probably b/c I insisted on ice cream at Josh&Johns after our hike/bike). The road was open to Devils playground, and it was cold up there, but the view was worth it!
On Friday we bid a fond farewell to Colorado Springs and headed north to Estes Park. We visited a cool bike shop called Bikesource in the suburbs of Denver, where we got Liam's bike a new tube and Gavin a new helmet. To try out the new gear, we first stopped at Bear Creek Lake Park and rode some trails. We then drove to Ruby Hill Bike Park in Denver.
Be sure to check out part 2 to hear about the rest of our adventure, which we spent in Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park. Pictures do NOT do it justice, but I will try my best...by including A LOT of them-like this!
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