Photo Journal Week #36

October 2, 2015 - Garden of the Gods and Pike's Peak

Craig and I took a long weekend to Denver and surrounding areas.  We had never really explored there before, wanted to take advantage of a free flight, and experience fall weather and colors; so off to Denver we went.

Our first stop was to the Colorado Springs area about 40 minutes south of Denver and the Garden of the Gods.

Kissing Camels

Some helpful soul took pity on our selfies and took a full length picture of us

The Garden of the Gods is some amazing outcroppings of rocks surrounding by junipers and forest. It is such an interesting area of rocks.  We enjoying hiking and walking around the area and even scrambling up a rock or two.

Love this showing the full effect

Craig was happy to make me nervous while he played king of the rocks

On a clear day you can often see Pike's Peak from the Garden of the Gods but our day was socked in with cloud cover.  Actually we were quite lucky that in the morning the clouds only surrounded us and wasn't thick enough to cover the rocks like it did in the afternoon.

Love the look of purple thistle

Twist and turn

The vegetation was interesting too. Lots of red dirt to walk on.  It was a good start to the trip as we were trying acclimate to the mile high city and area.

My how strong Craig is 'balancing' Balancing Rock

Since we were there we took a drive up Pikes Peak.  Pikes Peak is 14,115 feet above sea level. It was crazy because last weekend we were below sea level and here we now were at the top of one of the 'fourteeners' in Colorado.

Crystal Creek Reservoir

The hills are covered with aspens and junipers

Along our drive up Pikes Peak we saw our first real fall foliage.  I was enthralled. We drove 18 miles up. The first 4 miles were covered in clouds but once we were above them it was gorgeous and a bit terrifying.

Above the clouds

I say terrifying because the road is full of switchbacks right on the edge of the mountain.  It truly caused some anxiety on my part.  I was so grateful to make it to the top.

A sampling of the winding road

We made it to the top with a bit of wind and chill in the air

The view from the top took our breath away

Terrifying and breathtaking in more ways than one. But we did it. What a great day and what a beautiful area.

More of my photo journal-ling here.