It has been a busy week here in the vicinity of Colorado Springs. We have been in a lovely campground in the foothills of the Rockies so the air is not as thin as it has been higher up which makes breathing a bit easier. And as an added surprise we are surrounded by mule deer which feed around our RV all day long. Obviously not too many mountain lions in this area to cull their numbers down a bit. A mountain lion eats one deer a week.
The air is a lot cooler now than it has been and we seldom need the air conditioning and it can even get a bit chilly in the evenings. Higher up the slopes autumn is already showing its hand. On our first day here we visited the Royal Gorge. The waters of the Arkansas River on their way to the Mississippi River, flow through a thousand foot chasm that is scarcely 20 metres wide at the narrowest point on the river. And across it all stands a suspension bridge.
It's more of a theme park these days but worth seeing as you can take the world's steepest railway to the bottom, cross the world's highest suspension bridge and 'fly across' on an aerial tram all for the one admission price as well as seeing an illusionist perform his tricks and view a variety of wildlife.
The highest peak in this part of the Rockies is Pikes Peak and on one day we took a cog railway up to the summit which at 14110 ft is only a few hundred feet shy of the tallest peak in the Rockies.
Luckily it was a good day though hazy, and we had fabulous views. On the way up the mountain we saw loads of Big Horn Sheep, Yellow Bellied Marmots (looks like a cross between a cat and a prairie dog) and two black bears. The air was very thin at the top and it really did take your breath away looking out at the land far below.
Then on our last day we went riding. Off to the Garden of the Gods for a fantastic horse ride around this unique region. The so called Garden of the Gods is called that because it was discovered by two men, a German and an Englishman. The German wanted to set up a beer garden there and the Englishman wanted it as a reserve for the local Indian Tribe the UTES to serve as a place of worship to their gods. So a compromise was reached and it was called the Garden of the Gods and made a reserve.
We saddled up, me on Smokie and Wendy on Winnie and rode out into the park surrounded by the most amazing sculptured red rocks.
With Pikes Peak as a backdrop and the red rocks all around us and the horses leading us effortless up and down hills it was a great way to see this heritage site.
The horses were well behaved but I guess they knew the way pretty well. It was a glorious day with no haze and not too hot. A few mule deer darted to and fro, but as there are mountain lions in the park there were not too many of them.
We leave Colorado Springs tomorrow and cross the Continental Divide for the first time heading for the Black Gorge of the Gunnison River which flows eventually to the Pacific Ocean! Already around Colorado Springs it appears more like South Western America than around the Denver area with Adobe Houses, cactus and dry red rocks. We will be crossing the high Sangre de Christo Range of the Rockies, (Blood of Christ) so called because of the red rocks that abound here.
