Garden Of The Gods 08/07/20

Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado

He who robs his father or mother and says, “It’s not wrong” – he is partner to him who destroys. ~ Proverbs 28:24

Good morning, Colorado Springs!
That’s Cheyenne Mountain – 9,570′.
There’s a trail to the summit, but everything we’ve read says it’ll take you at least 15 hours round trip.
Some say 17. Yikes! That’s a little long for us, especially if Blaine took me along. . . .

This morning we ate breakfast with five hot air balloons and a bunny while listening to Reveille. Well, technically Reveille was just before we climbed out of bed, and by the time we actually ate, we could only see three balloons . . . but still . . . it was a fun way to start our day!

Up first on our agenda was driving to WalMart to buy a new battery for the Jeep. After that, we visited a free Colorado Springs city park called, Garden of the Gods. Interesting place, but by the time we arrived, it was already packed with people! In fact, we had to wait in line (on tape lines, six feet apart) for people to leave the Visitor Center so we could enter.

The Visitor Center was open for business, with a few exceptions.
They have a theater that remains closed, and a couple of exhibits that are ‘hands-on’ as well.

We found the way the patients are dressed very interesting!
When’s the last time you saw any group of men dressed in suits, let alone patients?

This one sounded interesting, but as you can see, they’ve painter’s taped it closed. : (

You can still stand beside the buffalo though!

On the scenic drive road. It’s also the only way to get around the park, unless you want to walk everywhere.
We were VERY surprised to see a large RV on this narrow, curvy road!
It’s so long, it has a tag axle! Don’t know where they think they’re gonna go . . .

I guess that’s where! It took them forever to turn into this small parking lot. There were no spaces left, and Blaine saw no way out for them, other than to back out into the street. That’ll hold up traffic for awhile! They actually parked in an area on the side of the parking lot that was a ‘no parking’ area.

Our first time driving around the main road loop, we didn’t find any parking. But the second time, we were able to snag the last spot in the next to last parking lot (after waiting for someone else to back out of the space), which was good because we discovered later that the last lot was packed to overflowing. We hiked a few miles from where we parked the Jeep to get to the main area of the ‘garden’. A small percentage of the time, we didn’t see anyone, but most of the time, there were not only other people, but also dogs, horses, trail construction, and a couple of bicycles. That’s a lot of traffic to maneuver around! Most of the time, we just walked single-file – because no one else was.