Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO

​June 21, 2022

Well, what a difference a day makes, as I slept fairly well and actually woke up at 5:10 AM. After a bit of a snooze, I was out and about and on the road at 7 AM. I wound up getting to the Garden of the Gods at 8 o’clock, which is when they open. I viewed and hiked around “balanced rock” then the Ute trail to the central area of the Garden of the Gods rocks. Google maps told me it was a 15 minute hike, but I guess I’m that slow these days as it took me about 30 minutes. Granted, Jo Jo has me stopping constantly, as he needs to sniff. It was suddenly busy with a lot of people, and a lot of rock climbers. At almost every angle, you could see people, kids too, climbing these rocks which was available by permit only. These are some unusual rock formations that sort of reminded me of Sedona and the Velasquez rocks of California, but still unique unto themselves. After a quick overlook at the Mesa Cliffs, I headed on over to Red Rocks Open Space City Park. I must truly be feeling better because I took a second 1.5 mile hike on this trail after a quick lunch. More rocks and more climbers and just unique features including the fact that this area was a quarry at one time. Sadly many rock cliffs were cut into rectangular blocks Leaving a terraced staircase, which was still quite impressive to try to figure out how they did this. Apparently it’s one of the better quality, consistent red rock stone, and there are several buildings in the area that are still in existence with this foundation, including carved features in Denver. 

I wound up at a Harvest Hosts location called the Smiling Toad Brewey, where I enjoyed a flight of beers and then had a fried queso blanco. Which is fried cheese but with Mexican queso. Yumm. I sat next to a teacher who teaches government studies and we had a fascinating conversation on the economic times. She’s getting ready to take a trip to Alaska and also has a camper van so we had camping conversation in common. She’s a local, and I guess and comes to the brewery frequently as part of a membership program.

I wish I could say urban camping always works out but I much prefer the woods compared to the noises of a parking lot. My neighbor in a unity B RV pulled up right next to me. I spoke with them briefly and hoped to God that that generator would not be something that they use, and thankfully it wasn’t!




















































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