Exploring Colorado Springs

09/17/2021 – 09/25/2021

The next leg of our journey took us to Colorado. We travelled from South Dakota thru Wyoming along US-85, 18 and picked up I-25 into Fort Collins; our first stop on this leg. As we were driving down US-85 we noticed this huge obstacle ahead of us. As we got closer it was a very large building being towed by a semi. The pilot vehicle ahead was warning oncoming traffic on the CB radio and the load was 23′ wide. This giant took up almost two lanes of traffic and was moving at a snail’s pace. We were forced to stay behind it for about 10 miles going about 25 mph. Finally, the opportunity came to pass it. It was like a turtle race, but Theo (our rig) prevailed and we managed to get around this monstrosity and continue our journey at speed.

  We arrived in Ft Collins on Friday night and moochdocked with Bill’s cousin and his wife. Bob and Catherine have a very lovely piece of property on a dead-end road and we were able to park right out front. We had a great time catching up, making homemade pizzas and watching old home movies.

  Sunday, we continued down I-25 to Pueblo. We opted not to stay in Colorado Springs due to availability and cost. We found a nice KOA about 30 miles south and it worked out just fine. It had a nice shady spot and camp was set up for the work week. Know before you go: if you decide to stay at this KOA, entrance to the park can be tricky. As you exit I-25 South there is an impossible 180 degree right turn to the frontage road that leads to the park. We had to disconnect and use the two dirt parking areas just off the exit to turn around and make a left turn on the frontage road. If you are exiting I-25 North, you will need to go thru a one lane tunnel with a max height of 13’6″. Theo would have made it, but it would have been very very tight! The park was very nice and had great views of Pikes Peak. There is so much to do in the area. We picked the two places we wanted to see the most; Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak.

Garden of the Gods really is a garden for the gods. The fiery red rocks were so beautiful, contrasting with the green junipers and pines and the bright blue sky. We arrived at what I think was the perfect time. The late afternoon sun lit the rocks up and the colors were phenomenal. (no filters on the photos below) We took a walk along Perkins Central Garden Trail; an easy 1 ½ mile loop along the base of the park’s larger rocks with plenty of photo opportunities. There are a lot of intersections on this loop and the map is not the easiest to read. I thought it might just be me having a bad map reading day, but we came across several people who were having the same problems. That made me feel better. Got it figured out and finished the loop. We continued by car thru the park and found a dirt road. Jeep… dirt road… okay let’s see where this goes. Followed the road for a few miles and it climbed up for a pretty view of the garden. Time to get back to the main road and finish checking out the park and get up to the mesa overlook for sunset.

I made grilled chicken salads, bread with dipping oil and a nice bottle of white wine. Originally the plan was to have a picnic in the park but the kind lady at the visitor center told us about this overlook. It was the perfect place to enjoy our meal and end the day.

Now it was time to deal with my anxiety and Pikes Peak. Of course, everyone tells you what a treacherous road it is to the top; no guard rails and one review I read even said “death drops on both sides”. Well, my imagination start running away with me. I’m envisioning driving across the ridge with huge drops on both sides of the road, losing control on the way down with the brakes going out or not making the turn and rolling down the side of a 14,000-foot mountain. It was time to get a grip.

Time to have a conversation with myself:

1. Hundreds (maybe thousands) drive this road every day and make it back safely.
2. You have been on goat trails in the jeep where the road is only slightly wider than the jeep with sheer drops and survived.
3. The person who wrote death drops on both sides of the road was from Florida. They probably haven’t seen mountain roads like this before (I can say that because I am from Florida myself and there are no mountains with death drops there).
4. Your husband is a good and safe driver (when he needs to be) and will not take any unnecessary risks.

 I am good to go and looking forward to the trip. Do you think the older we get the more anxious we get about things? How do you deal with your anxiety when you know there isn’t really anything to be too nervous about?

Okay, so Pikes Peak, I don’t know what I was so nervous about. It was a beautiful drive and the views were amazing. When we went thru the entrance, we were told the road was closed at mile 16. What?? The road is 19 miles long. Are you saying we can drive 16 miles but we are going to be robbed of the summit? Seems they were repaving the parking lot at the Visitors Center at the Summit. What do we do? Pay the $30 and go as far as we can? Yes, because who knows when we will get the chance to do this again. We started our climb and made it thru all the switch backs and reached the Devil’s Playground at mile 16. It was there we were told they were letting cars go on up to the summit; 15 at a time and we would have to wait about an hour. Not a problem. We got in line and walked around a little bit. The altitude hit as soon as I stepped out of the jeep and started to walk around. I felt very light headed. Is this the Rocky Mountain High, John Denver wrote about? As luck would have it, we only had to wait 15 minutes and we were on our way to climb the last 3 miles to the summit. Bill was great. I noticed he hugged the yellow line when we got to parts of the road where the drop off was steep. How sweet, right? We got some donuts because it’s the thing to do and enjoyed the view for a little bit. It felt like you were standing on top of the world and so far removed from everything. It was a little bit hazy and the view was not clear but was spectacular nonetheless. Now for the trip back down the mountain. No trouble at all. The jeep and Bill handled it like a champ. I truly do not know what I was so nervous about.

We ended our stay in the Pueblo area with the Pueblo Chilie (yep, that’s the way they spelled it) and Frijole Festival. Watching the local news one night we heard about this festival. Green Chilis? Beans? Live music? Sign me up. We had so much fun walking around downtown Pueblo and sampling all the goodness. We were shocked with the amount of fresh chilis being roasted; huge drums filled with chilis and garlic being spun over a very high flame. Embers shot off the chilis and the smell was amazing. After we had our fill of food, we purchased some freshly roasted chilis to take home with us as well as some freshly picked pinto beans. I see some Green Chili with Pork in our future. Click here if you would like to try my recipe. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the area.