On Sunday morning, after a great breakfast at our Roadway Inn in Alamosa, we headed for Colorado Springs, our final destination before flying home. This was our shortest driving distance of about 170 miles. I noticed on the map Brown Canyon National Monument was on the way. This is the area north of the town of Salida and is along the Arkansas River. It was made a national monument in 2015 by President Obama. I put Brown Canyon National Monument Visitors Center in the GPS. When we got to our destination, it was just an area with picnic tables, restrooms, and a boat launch to the river. I guess they haven’t built a visitors center yet.
Do you know the difference between a national park and a national monument? During one of our ranger hikes in Black Canyon, I learned that monuments are set aside by a presidential order while national parks are established by the congress. Both Black Canyon and Great Sand Dunes were first monuments before became national parks.
Our next hotel was in Manitou Springs, just west of Colorado Springs. The town reminded me of Lake Placid, small with lots of restaurants and shops. This town has a hot springs which attracted many visitors. Peaks Peak Cog Railroad and the Garden of the Gods are located in Manitou Springs.
Did you know that Colorado got its name from the Spanish words Color Red? That can pretty well sum up Garden of the Gods. It is a city park full of huge interesting red sandstone formations; it was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1971. It reminded me of Arches National Park but smaller. The land was once owned by Charles Elliott Perkins, a railroad tycoon, whose children donated the land to Colorado Springs in 1909 with the stipulation it had to remain free to the public.
Our next adventure was the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad. It was a partly cloudy day so I wasn’t sure it was the best day to go to the summit, but off we went hoping for a break in the clouds. Established in 1891 it has taken millions to the 14,115 foot summit; it is the world’s highest cog railroad.
On the observation area was a monument with the words to “America the Beautiful”. Katherine Lee Bates was inspired to write a poem called “Pikes Peak” after riding on the cog railroad in 1895. It was later put to music and was the song was first published in 1910.
While Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern front range of the Rocky Mountains, I was surprised to learn that there are nineteen higher peaks in Colorado. Pikes Peak Cog Railroad is a National Historic Landmark.
Seven Falls was our next stop. It is a series of seven falls of South Cheyenne Creek in South Cheyenne Canyon. The site has been privately owned since the early 1880. We had quite a time actually getting to the falls. Our GPS took us to the entrance but their was a sign telling us to park at another location and take a shuttle. Putting that address into our GPS, we wound up going in the same circular route twice until a Seven Falls shuttle passed us. “Quick, follow that van!” I exclaimed. It led us to a parking area across from the Broadmore Hotel.
While the falls were pretty and the area was well maintained with beautiful flowers, Frank and I were a bit disappointed. Being privately owned, our National Park Golden Pass was not going to work here. We missed the natural setting of all of the places we had visited earlier on our trip.
On Tuesday our last day of touring, we took a jeep tour to two gold mining towns, Cripple Creek and Victor. These towns are about 45 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. Gold was discovered in the Colorado territory in 1858 and led to the largest migration of people to the area. However, these two towns sprung in the 1890’s when gold was found near Cripple Creek.
The first town we came to was Cripple Creek, named after the small creek that passes through the town. After the gold rush days this town became a ghost town. In the 70’s the town voted to allow casinos and presently it has nine casinos which has brought tourists and boosted the town’s economy. All the buildings are made of brick. In the early 1900’s most of the houses in Cripple Creek burned and were replaced with brick structures. The Casinos have restored the buildings in keeping with the 1900’s style. We were surprised when two donkeys came up to our Jeep. Our driver had food for them. Then one mule went over and turned on a spigot to fill a bucket in front of a building to get a drink. Donkeys must be smarter than I thought!
Victor was the next town we explored. Also, popping up right after gold was discovered it rapidly grew to a population of 18,000 becoming Colorado’s fifth largest city at that time. At Victor’s peak, they were 3 trains, two trollies, 20 doctors, 6 churches, 12 labor unions, 15 attorneys, and 48 saloons! There were 500 gold mines. Now it is practically a ghost town with a population of 397 in the 2010 census. Along with Cripple Creek this area area became the second largest gold mining area in the country producing about $10 billion of mined gold in 2010 value. While there is one hard rock gold mine currrently in operation, the rest of the mining is now done by strip mining. Our driver took us to a quarry where gold is extracted today. You can see the terraced levels in the picture below.
Traveling toward Denver airport in order to catch our flight home the next day, we made our final stop just north of Colorado Springs at the United States Air Force Academy. We went into the Barry Goldwater Visitor’s Center to see a twenty minute film on the life of a cadet in the first year of their training. After viewing the film, I can see why only the best and brightest are accepted into the program. There are 1,000 in each class, so 4,000 cadets are trained here during their 4 year academic, military, and physical training program.
After the film we went to the Chapel on campus. It was truly amazing architecturally. There was a Protestant chapel on the first floor and a Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist chapels on the lower level. What an impressive building and campus! There were more buildings open to the public, but we were ready to head to our hotel near the airport for our flight home in the morning.
All in all we had a great week in Colorado. We saw three national parks and some interesting sights in Colorado Springs. After we were home, one of the important things that needed to addressed was our map of the U.S. National Parks. Frank carefully put on the stickers for Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon, and Great Sand Dunes! That makes 26 parks visited! Just think we only have 33 more parks to go!
