Mountains, Trains, Aspens, Friendly People: Our Colorado Vacation

Are you looking for beautiful views? Train rides? The Old West? Friendly people? Lots of T-shirts? If so, Colorado won’t disappoint! Here are a few photos and memories of a trip Cindy and I recently took to southern Colorado.

Garden of the Gods: Free and Amazing!

One of the best things about Garden of the Gods is that it is free. The original owner deeded it to Colorado Springs when he passed away, with the understanding that it would always remain free to the public. It’s a beautiful location that boasts mammoth red rock formations. Don’t miss it if you ever have a chance to go!

At Garden of the Gods. The bald mountain behind Cindy and me is Pikes Peak.

One of the large rock formations at Garden of the Gods.

Balancing Rock, Garden of the Gods.

That’s me way up there, pretending to read a book. (It was supposed to be funny, but never mind that.) There was a drop-off on the backside of my perch, and when I started to sit down, I stumbled and fell … away from the drop-off, thank the Lord! But I thought for a couple of seconds that our vacation might end early! I came out of it with bloody knuckles and a scrape on my knee.

Pikes Peak: Breathtaking* Views!

I had never planned to visit the summit of Pikes Peak—until I found out about the Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway!

*The views were literally breathtaking because it was hard to breathe up there! I was surprised at how much the “thin air” bothered me. It’s easy to wind yourself, and, once you’re winded, it’s hard to recover, and you can get a little sick to your stomach too. So if you go, hydrate ahead of time and take it easy.

Seated on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway ready for our trip to the tip of the peak!

Views on the train ride up were gorgeous!

Because of low temperatures, strong winds, thin oxygen, and a short growing season, trees in the Rockies don’t grow above 11,000 feet above sea level. Pikes Peak is 14,115 feet in elevation, so we were well above the tree line. Note the rock to the right in the foreground: it is called Frog Rock. It is called that because that is what I call it.

A view of our train parked at the top of the Peak.

Cindy fearlessly taking in the view.

In spite of temperatures in the upper 70s down below, there was still snow on the Peak!

Great Sand Dunes National Park: Awe-Inspiring . . . and Exhausting

One of the lesser-known National Parks is Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes. It was awe-inspiring, fascinating, and … exhausting!

So, what’s a bunch of sand doing in the middle of a mountain range? According to our good friends at Wikipedia, “Sediments from the surrounding mountains filled the valley over geologic time periods. After lakes within the valley receded, exposed sand was blown by the predominant southwest winds toward the Sangre de [Cristo Mountains], eventually forming the dune field.”

This is us outside a National Park. Can you guess which one? And do you like my shirt? This photo was taken before we were exhausted.

Here’s a shot from near the park entrance. You can begin to comprehend the size of the dune field from this perspective. Great Sand Dunes National Park boasts the highest dunes in all of North America, some rising to over 700 feet. Again, from Wikipedia, “The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km2) and are estimated to contain over 1.2 cubic miles (5 billion cubic metres) of sand.”

This shot shows how far you have to walk through loose sand from the parking lot to the first dune. It’s about half a mile, and on a hot day, it’s exhausting! [Photo from Google Maps, Dan Shaffer]

In this photo we had just reached the edge of the dune field after that half-mile hike through loose, flat sand. In case I haven't mentioned it, it was hot and exhausting! See the tiny little specks on the dunes behind us? Those are people who are younger than us, in better shape than us, and more driven than us. We pretty much stopped here, took some videos and photos, and then traipsed back to the car. Because we were exhausted. But we loved seeing the Dunes and enjoyed the park and highly recommend it!

Chimney Rock National Monument: A Trek to the Top

This was a “minor” stop (just a couple of hours), but it turned out to be fascinating—and exhausting, just like the Dunes had been! Chimney Rock National Monument in the San Juan Mountains is known not only for its obvious “chimney” landmark (on the right below) but also for the remnants of pueblo dwellings from people who lived there a thousand years past.

I don’t know whether the prominence on the left has a name or not. Maybe they call it Satellite Dish Rock, I dunno. A park ranger told me peregrine falcons like to nest there.

I successfully tackled the “moderately challenging” (!) .6-mile hike to the top of Chimney Rock. Gasp, wheeze, whew! Copilot AI tells me the path has a rise of 160 feet, but it felt more like 2000 feet to me. Or maybe 20,000.

Mesa Verde National Park: Well Worth the Climb

Visiting Mesa Verde National Park had been a lifelong dream of mine. From time to time my mom and grandparents used to mention having visited there. What a thrill to tour the thousand-year-old ruins!

Before we went, I thought the view in the photo above showed all the ruins there are. Wrong! There are over 600 pueblo locations in this area, and there may still be more to find.

To get to and from the ruins, we had to climb several wooden ladders. Though they were clearly sturdy and firm, it was still an adventure to use them! Listen, if two sixty-three-year-olds can cut it, you probably can too! That’s Cindy in the red ball cap. You go, girl!

Much of the town life centered on kivas, round rooms dug into the ground. What were all their uses? No one knows for sure, but they were probably used for town meetings and religious events. Note the fire pit in the kiva above; the small floor-level opening at the back was to allow fresh air to be drawn in as the heat and smoke from the fire went out the hole in the roof (which doubled as a doorway—doors to dwellings were in the roofs in the pueblo architecture). The vertical stone between the opening and the fire is to deflect the outside air and keep it from blowing out the fire. That is AD 1300 technology!

Our park ranger tour guide was great! I’ll bet we stood there and listened to him for 30 minutes to an hour. The history he shared was fascinating. For instance, originally the dwellings would have had a sort of plaster covering over the stones that natives would paint a variety of colors. 

Durango-Silverton Railroad: A Trip into the Past

Here’s another item I was able to check off my bucket list! (When everything is crossed off the list, am I required to kick the bucket?) This was a three-hour (or so) trip on an old-fashioned steam engine (we had to stop to put water in the boiler twice on the way up) that goes from Durango to Silverton and back again every day. The aspens were at their peak of golden color; we rode in an open train car with an unobstructed view; the weather was perfect; people were friendly; it was an excellent experience all around!

By the way, if you’re making a movie and you need a shot of an old-fashioned steam engine puffing its way up a beautiful, scenic valley, you will probably use the Durango-Silverton Railroad, as have other directors before you. Look, for example, at the first twelve seconds of this scene from The Prestige.

All aboard! I thought three hours to Silverton might get monotonous after a while, but we just kept seeing stunning view after stunning view!

I was thrilled to be able to get a number of shots such as this of the train. It was a visually striking and just-plain-fun experience!

Downtown Silverton, a perfect example of what we Easterners think all western towns look like.

You don’t see as many churches in Colorado as you do here in the South. This is a little community church in Silverton. I was trying to take an “artsy” shot with the sun at the top of the steeple. How’d I do?

The unpaved streets, the railroad, the mountains, the aspens:  Silverton, Colorado.

A little by-path in Silverton. Notice rectangular blue sign. No, we didn’t knock on the door.

Additional Shots of Beautiful Colorado

I’ve never been in a place that has so many beautiful locations. In fact, we had to stop taking photos, even if we said, “Oh, that’s beautiful!” because “beautiful” was everywhere we looked. Here are a few more photos in case you’re interested.

This is my favorite shot from the whole trip.

The railroad follows the Animas River to and from Silverton, so you have many gorgeous view of mountains, trees, river, sky . . . fantastic!

Aspens supposedly have something in their bark that can lessen pain, and the Native Americans used it for that purpose. In fact, Native American doctors used to tell patients, “Take two aspen and call me in the morning.”