Colorado Springs: The Sky's the Limit

The Sky's the Limit! This adage is true for the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie Castle, and the United States Air Force Academy, though with a different interpretation for each.

Monday, August 9 we had a relaxed mid-morning start intending to take the 1:00 pm tour of Eyrie Castle, 25 miles south of our home base. Once near the region of the castle, our navigation system directed us on a path that took us unintentionally through the Garden of the Gods, Joe having to steer us nerve-rackingly close to, between, and around awesome looking towering boulders.

Then the voice of Siri announced from my iPhone, "You have arrived" and instructed us to, "Park and walk 2½ miles to your destination."  Excuse me Siri, but, "Uh, really?"  We drove on and when we spotted the visitor center for the Garden of the Gods we parked and walked in to ask directions from a human. We suspected that Siri had directed us to approach the castle from the wrong direction and confirmed from visitor center staff that we had entered at the southwest corner of the area instead of going directly to the castle from the northeast end.

Shortly after we were indoors, the sky took on an ominously black tint, then opened up and positively deluged the area with pounding, driving rain. The dark cloud loomed over three signature rocks of Garden of the Gods.

These rocks are a series of "hogbacks" protruding from the center of the park in the visitor center. Glen Eyrie Castle would be off to the right of the photo.

Waiting for the weather to clear, we roamed the halls of the visitor center much as this buffalo – or more precisely stated, bison – would have roamed the great plains of this area years ago. Alas, a home on the mountains is a far cry from a home on the range.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Yeah... right!

We took the time during the rain storm to watch the Geo-Trekker movie, an excellent, well-presented journey both in time and depth into the story behind the formation of the rocks that protrude from the earth at Garden of the Gods.

Once we had directions, and the rain had stopped, yielding to the bright shining sun, we got back in our rental SUV and headed toward the castle, purported to be less than ten minutes down the road. A lot can happen in ten minutes on the time scale of high mountain elevations. No sooner were we in the vehicle driving along the road to the castle, when Frank's cell phone starts squealing and squawking out a flash flood alert. Within seconds the road we were on was at least three inches deep in brown muddy water streaming crosswise across it at non-negligible speed. To his credit, highly-stressed driver Joe did not freak out as the passengers in the car all started screaming, "Head for high ground! Go uphill!" Uphill was fortuitously the road to the castle and we headed up it.

Then the sky had its say once again. We began getting pounded with hail the size of baby peas. The guard at the castle gate said that the castle was closed immediately for tours since the plows were out dealing with about 4" of hail accumulation. The shocking weather receding then as quickly as it had come. I got no pictures of the streaming flood waters or snow plows in action I was so amazed. I guess I would not make a good photo-journalist.

We never did get back to tour the castle. This is what we missed. It was a bit of a pity considering there were six Downton Abbey fans amongst us. With all the rich railroad history in Colorado though, there is a good chance Frank and I may be back in the area some day.

We retreated back to the Garden of the Gods visitor center and decided to have lunch and finish touring it. That striking rock formation makes for quite a view from the cafeteria. We got to admire it under many lighting conditions. Pike's Peak is visible in the distance. Katherine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful inspired by the view she saw from Pikes's Peak.

Oddly enough, those boulders reminded me of the scenery in Disney's California Adventure theme park's attraction the Radiator Springs Racers in CarsLand. There is no question though, between these two photos of which came first, the chicken or the egg.

We listened to a lecture by a retired history professor who dressed as Zebulon Pike and recounted the tale of the exploration of the area. Pike's excursion had been sponsored and commissioned under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase and in the same time frame as the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pike grossly underestimated the distances, elevations, and locations of major rivers in the area he was scouting, and lost many of his party in the process due to misguided assumptions about climate and possible rates of travel. Pike had proposed the mountain be named Jefferson Peak. He returned safely from the excursion but he died later, before ever knowing it had been named after him, instead.

The professor had had his costume custom made and I admired the handiwork. He let me try it on.

I learned that he, with his costume, was slated to be a key speaker at an embroidery conference the following week. Just look at the detail in the sleeves.

On the drive home we stopped off at good ol' Walmart and bought chicken breasts to grill for dinner at home base. Afterwards we played a gamed of Ticket to Ride that stretched into the next day. Here are the cards that represent each of the train cars used on a board as each player maps routes across the United States. I think it was a appropriate game to play in Colorado, known for its extensive railroading history.

The following day, Tuesday, August 11, we were slated to tour the United States Air Force Academy. It conjures up the traditional interpretation of "the sky's the limit". I'd planned to address our trip there in this post but, like Zebulon Pike who underestimated distances, I underestimated the extent of information to cover on our Monday travels. The United States Air Force Academy will remain the subject of a post for another day.