We bugged out of Dodge early yesterday to get ahead of any tornado warnings. As a result, had no time to visit Matt Dillon or Miss Kitty. Got to Colorado and spent last night in Manitou Springs just outside of Colorado Springs. We did stop along the way to visit Bent’s Old Fort which was an important trading and resupplying spot on the Santa Fe trail.
Today, we had wanted to drive up Pike’s Peak (over 14,000 feet) but the last 6 miles were closed due to ice so figured if we couldn’t go big, we’d just go elsewhere. We were really disappointed in this but knew there was a likelihood we would not be able to go all the way to the top. We moved on to Royal Gorge and spent several hours there. This was a very pretty spot but somewhat spoiled by all the commercialism. I described it as tourist attraction vomit. There were Jeep tours, ATV tours, dinosaur tours, zip lining, bungee jumping, rafting tours…the list goes on and on. I just wanted to see something beautiful – which I did after I got through all the tourist crap. We took a gondola across the gorge and then walked back on the bridge. One of the most amazing things about this is it was built during the New Deal with workers working 965 feet over the river for less than a $1.00 a day.
Tonight we are in a neat little town called Salida.
Be sure to check out the pictures below.
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