Hello everyone! I have spent the past five days in one of the most gorgeous and amazing places that I have ever seen. I was on vacation this week and decided to take my dad to Colorado.
We arrived in Denver on Monday afternoon. It was really too late to do much sight-seeing so we went and settled into our hotel room and relaxed for the evening.
Tuesday, we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. There are some absolutely breath taking views there. The cool, crisp mountain air hits the lungs like nothing I have ever experienced. It was truly nature at its best. About 2/3 of the way up the main trail, there is a place that you can pull off and take pictures of a lake below. The funny thing is, despite all of the signs that specifically say "Do Not Feed the Wildlife", people do. My dad and I were walking along this little wall and a chipmunk literally walked beside us, not a foot away. He stopped when we stopped. He walked when we walked. I did NOT feed him but I did sit on the ground and get a good close-up picture of him. It was obvious he wanted food, and was used to people feeding him, but I resisted, admittedly because I didn't have any peanuts or 'goodies' to give him LOL
Then on Wednesday, we went to Colorado Springs to the Garden of the Gods. It was neat but not all that interesting. After that, we headed up Pike's Peak. At its summit, Pike's is 14,100 feet high. The temperature went from 74* at the base to 37* at the top, with about 15mph winds. Pretty chilly, especially for September. My dad quickly ran to the back of the Jeep and grabbed my jacket. LOL I got a TON of pictures from Pike's Peak. It is stunning! Words would not do justice to the beauty that God has created. How anyone can see this, and think that it all happened by 'chance' is beyond me. It is definitely proof of a great and powerful Creator!
Some of the turns and twists going down the mountain are trecherous. Ten miles per hour is about all you can safely do. First gear is definitely needed.
Thursday, we went to Royal Gorge in Canon City, Colorado. At the Gorge is the highest suspension bridge in the world. In the middle, it is 1053 feet off of the Arkansas River below. Again, some breath taking views are found here. There are some pretty steep hills around the gorge. My dad was getting pretty tired and winded, so we took an air tram across the gorge to get back to the car. This in and of itself is really neat. In the middle of the ride you are between 1100 and 1200 feet off the river. Just floating along in a metal cart. Pretty exciting.
Friday we really didn't do a lot. My dad was pretty sore and tired from the hiking the previous day and with his recent health problems, I didn't want to push anything. So we drove around and had a really good time.
Thursday night we did go into Downtown Denver and had dinner with a couple of friends of mine there. We ate at a cute little restaurant. The food was ok. Definitely not worth the price, but I had good company so that lessened the harshness of my opinion of the place. LOL We felt bad that my dad really couldn't hear much of what we were saying (it was noisy) but he seemed to really enjoy the friends that came to see us.
I still have a couple of more days before I get back into the swing of things at work. I have truly had a wonderful week. It was well worth it.
I hope that all of you are having a great week and I hope to hear from y'all soon!
~Greg~
