Colorado Springs, Colorado – Part 2

This blog update covers the final week of our two week in this beautiful area of the country. Colorado Springs, Colorado is about 30 minutes north from our campsite at Cheyenne Mountain State Park. In this update, I will cover our trip up to Pikes Peak, a drive to Cripple Creek, and lunch at Manitou Springs. We are fortunate to be able to share our experiences with our good friends, Calvin and Sue, also camping in the park with their RV.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park

This is an outstanding mountainside park that looks to be fairly new. Nice wide interior roads and excellent campsite spacing. And with 50 amp, full hook ups, and pull throughs, it was a place that we could stay for awhile, but alas, they have a two week rule, so it was time to move on after a great last week.

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Our site placed our picture window overlooking a large wild grass field and it was all overlooking the army post of Ft. Carson. We could clearly hear reverie in the morning and some others during the day with taps at about 9:30 pm each evening. We surely had a great view with very few neighbors.

The only challenging part of the park is that it is on the side of a mountain and has very steep interior roads leading up to the campgrounds. The big red diesel Ford had to strain for about 2 miles to the top, but this altitude afforded some excellent views. Also, the right hand turn into the park had a very narrow, curbed turn lane that was tricky with the long 5th wheel coach. It is manageable if you turn into it from the center lane and not the right (turn) lane.

By the way, the namesake mountain (Cheyenne) for the park is home to NORAD. The North American Aerospace Defense Command. In the late 1950’s, three entire buildings were built inside of this granite mountain and installed on shock absorbing springs. This was at the height of the cold war.

Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America, a destination at 14,115 feet! We had wanted to take the Cog Railway trip up the mountain, but it is currently down for repairs until next year sometime. So, the backup plan is to drive your car up 13 of the 19 mile climb and then take the shuttle buses up the rest of the way.

We had heard that at the top, the lack of oxygen has an effect on visitors. But thought that since we have been living at 8-10,000 feet for several weeks now, that we would be fine. Well, that was not quite right.

I drove the Honda up the steep and winding road to the 13 mile point with little issues. This section of the road does not have many hairpin curves or shear drop offs without benefit of guardrails. But, that all changes in the next six miles!

Climbing into the ten passenger van, I positioned myself in the middle of the second row with good forward visibility as I can get a little bothered by motion with many stops and turns. The problem for me was also some height issues since on the way up, the right hand lane was also the one on the outside edge of the narrow two lane road. At some places, there was maybe 18 inches of shoulder separating us from a few thousand feet drop off! With no guard rail on the most part.

No doubt the snow capped continental divide mountains were an awesome sight that I caught a few glimpses. The driver did a great job of telling jokes to take people’s minds off the ride. Such as a recommendation that if the ride bothered anyone to just close your eyes because that is what he does. Perhaps funny when not seeing the edge of the world about 18 inches away!

So, I made it to the top a little whiter for the wear and then finally got to enjoy the breathtaking view. Until about three minutes later when the altitude caught up. It was a very strange feeling. Like drinking four drinks without the good side. Kind of light headed and out of it.

We walked around the fairly large flat snow covered peak and took some pictures, then decided to go inside the restaurant/gift shop to get some of their world famous donuts and a coffee to sober up. No, I had nothing to drink. Just seemed like it.

The donuts are quite famous as it requires a special patented process to make them at this high 14,115 feet in altitude. The food line was about ten minutes to then grab half a dozen goodies and two coffees. Sitting down and having these treats most definitely improved how we felt.

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The 360 mile view from the top is just not able to be described. And the photos do not do it justice. I would recommend that everyone do this at least once. It is God’s glory on display as never before. I feel very blessed that we are able to experience these sights.

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A few days later we were in a museum that had all the highest peaks of each continent listed. Mt. Everest is at 29,000+ feet. I can’t imagine that although I believe most climbers must use oxygen.

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Manitou Springs, Co

Manitou Springs (pop 5,000 and 6,412 elevation) is known for its mineral springs, mountain views, and a winding historic downtown area that attracts tons of tourists. In fact, we visited on a Saturday and it was so busy that we could not find a suitable parking place, so we went back to Old Colorado City for lunch.

Not to be outdone, we returned on a weekday and it was much better. Nice streetside parking right in the heart of downtown. We walked around for awhile, stopped in many shops and art galleries and then decided on The Cliff House for lunch. It is an historic hotel with a white linen dining room for lunch! Very nice.

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Cripple Creek

Cripple Creek (pop 1,200 and 9,500 elevation) was a day trip mountain drive of just over an hour from our base camp. The distance would have been half that as the crow flies, but we had to take some roads way around Pikes Peak. The view from this town could not have been more spectacular!

With the continental divide mountains on one side and Pikes Peak on the other. The photos do not do it justice. Another place to add to your bucket list!

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The history is very interesting. In 1890, a prospector discovered gold and then the gold rush was on. In three years, the population increased from five hundred to ten thousand. $500 million worth of gold ore was dug from Cripple Creek, including some still in operation today.

Also, in 1896 the entire town was destroyed by fires. It was quickly rebuilt with brick this time and most all the buildings still standing date back to this year.

Today, the town is filled with casinos. They have figured another way to mine gold! I donated a very small amount to their continued well-being and we had a nice lunch before touring a museum and returning back to base camp.

That wraps up our two week stay in Colorado Springs. This is a large metro area with much to do and a lot of traffic at peak times. We will probably return one of these day. Thanks for following along! Be sure to subscribe below to receive an email for future updates.

Take care and God Bless.