"We walked off to look for America"

Simon and Garfunkel's song "America" tells the story of "young lovers hitchhiking their way across the United States, in search of 'America,' in both a literal and figurative sense," as the Wikipedia entry about the song so aptly puts it. They travel from Michigan through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, presumably en route to New York City, that mecca of fashion and culture and commerce. As much as I love the song, I've always felt that the young lovers were heading in the wrong direction. The road to America lies west, not east. Or at least it does for me.

My 40th birthday happened to coincide with another invitation to judge at a model horse show in Colorado. Five years had passed since last I had visited that state, and my need to see mountains and wide-open skies had been steadily growing ever since, so I jumped at the chance. Much to my delight, my sister and her boyfriend decided to make the trip as well, and we all met up in Denver for a mini adventure before the show.

For a while now, I've been doing my unsubtle best to convince them that they, too, should move to Colorado (as I hope to do eventually (although probably only after winning the lottery at this rate)).  So I created an itinerary that I hoped would maximize dramatic scenery and fun. I had thought some of going up to Rocky Mountain National Park and staying somewhere in the mountains, but as it was only April, Trail Ridge Road through RMNP was still buried in snow, and the forecast was a tad dicey elsewhere in that area. Rather than risk icy conditions, we headed south toward Colorado Springs to do the touristy thing where warmer weather was more likely.

On the road south

Our first stop was an overlook along the highway with a spectacular view of Pike's Peak and its neighbors.

Snow cap on Pike's Peak

Panorama of the Rampart Range

Our ultimate destination that afternoon was Garden of the Gods. My sister and I had seen it briefly on our trip in 2010, but this time around, we were determined to really explore the area. It was a warm, extremely windy day which felt amazing to me after a long, ugly winter in Chicago. We spent most of our time wandering through the central Cathedral Valley of the park taking pictures and watching a couple of climbers scale the hogbacks. About 250 million years ago, these massive tilted sedimentary rocks were part of the floor of an inland sea that lapped up to the front range of the Ancestral Rockies. Over the millennia, the Ancestral Rockies eroded away, and the climate dried, turning the area into a desert that stretched across much of the southwest. Around 65 million years ago, the uplift that formed the present day Rocky Mountains tilted these slabs on end, creating this amazing landscape.

Kissing Camels

White rocks

Orange rocks

Plaque commemorating gift of the park to Colorado Springs

The land on which Garden of the Gods sits was willed to the city of Colorado Springs in 1909 upon the death of its owner, Charles Perkins, with the stipulation that it be turned into a free public park. More than 100 years later, the park draws sight-seers, hikers, climbers, nature lovers, international tourists, and people utterly bored to death with city-scapes like me.

Tall rocks

Pointy rocks

Still more rocks

The view from the back side of the largest fins

One thing that always fascinates me about Colorado is the wealth of outdoor sculpture, often whimsical, that turns up in all sorts of out of the way places. These delightful life size metal saguaro cacti greet visitors to the Garden of the Gods trading post.

The security officer in the trading post was kind of intense

The trading post sells the usual mix of generic touristy, outdoorsy kitsch (which is fun, don't get me wrong), but I was most interested in the exquisite Navajo rugs and sandpaintings and the Puebloan pottery.

A unique and lovely sandpainting on a light shade!

Navajo rugs

Mind-blowing, intricately patterned pottery from Acoma pueblo

We made a last circuit of the park just before dusk, stopping at the geological wonder that is Balanced Rock. Millennia of erosion from wind and rain have worn away the rock around it, leaving it seemingly precariously balanced over the road.

Scale is hard to judge from photos, but this rock is a massive 35 feet high

Our hotel was just a few minutes away in Manitou Springs in the shadow of Pike's Peak. We drove through town and up the pass beyond a ways, but evening was coming on, and we were hungry, so we turned back. (Alas, none of my pictures from that drive turned out well enough to share.) We poked around the various interesting shops and restaurants in Manitou and ultimately opted to eat at The Loop, a Mexican restaurant. This proved to be an inspired choice because the food was absolutely amazing. I'm not normally a foodie, but their quesadillas were so good, I had to be that person and take a picture of my plate. 

Having stuffed ourselves mightily, and having brought home leftovers to boot, we returned to our hotel and promptly all fell into sleepy, contented food comas. Our plans for the next day depended on the weather, but would involve mountains one way or the other. Westward, ho, to look for more America!

Toes in the Pacific

The next morning dawned surprisingly sunny (for a little while), so Jackie and I set off west to visit  the Pacific Ocean, the one thing I wanted most to see on the trip. Until then, I had never been farther west than Teec Nos Pos in the northeastern corner of Arizona, and what little else I had seen of the west was primarily comprised of Colorado and the Four Corners area (not that I'm complaining because that part of the country is astonishingly and heart-achingly beautiful). Having lived in Georgia for 15 years, I did get to see the Atlantic Ocean a few times as a kid on trips to Savannah and parts of Florida, but that coast line is pretty tame compared to the rugged beauty that is the west coast of Oregon. 

Albany, OR, is in the lush Willamette Valley, and though it was a little chilly in March, spring had definitely begun to bloom. (I happened to be reading The Postman by David Brin on the airplane flying out to Seattle, so I was amused that we drove through Corvallis that morning.)

The Coast Range in the distance

Up we go!

The drive over the Coast Range was quite pretty. The mountains (foothills?) are heavily forested and little streams and rivers seem to flow through all of the valleys.

I was particularly fascinated by the giant trees that stand almost twice as tall as the "normal" trees around them. Some kind of fir or sequoia, I think?

Our destination was Newport, OR, at the mouth of the Yaquina River. It's exactly what you want from a tourist town---small, friendly, terrifically artsy, and with an abundance of amazing scenery.

My first glimpse of the Pacific!

The bridge over Yaquina Bay

Our first stop was Seal Rock State Recreation Area. You can tell which way the prevailing winds tend to blow...

Looking north up the coast

Big spray

Looking south

Panorama from the beach

Happy little seagulls

I successfully dunked my toes in the Pacific. (A little more literally than I had intended as my boot had a hole in the sole I had been previously unaware of.)

We stopped in an antique store along the coast because that's what model horse collectors do no matter where they travel. You never know what fabulous finds might be waiting! And then Jackie asked if I wanted to stop in a glassblowing shop. I collect pottery, not glass, so I thought that would be pretty safe entertainment. Hahaha, how wrong I was!

Ocean Beaches Glassblowing & Gallery is a fantastic gallery of exquisite hand-blown glass by a variety of local artists. I was absolutely blown away by the artistry of everything on display.

I was completely unaware of the old fishing practice of using glass floats with fishing nets until we visited this shop---I guess that's what comes of living in primarily landlocked places. But I was fascinated by the proprietor's stories of how collecting floats that washed up on the shore was a time-honored tradition for Oregon beach combers. They have become scarce since most floats these days are plastic, but the local glass artists continue to make beautiful decorative ones instead.

Not surprisingly, I was unable to resist the allure of art and history lesson all in one, so I came home with this exquisite float by Joe Novello, a local Newport artist.

The gallery features a working shop where customers can watch artists at work. It's utterly mesmerizing to see a piece of glass made from start to finish.

From there, we headed back up the coast to the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area which boasts Oregon's tallest lighthouse. It stands on a picturesque point of land that extends about a mile farther out into the Pacific that then rest of the coastline. Before checking out the lighthouse though, we descended several flights of stairs from the parking lot down to Cobble Beach to see the tidal pools.

The beach is made up almost entirely of these rounded greys rocks (cobbles) that are apparently the results of an ancient lava flow splashing into the ocean. Because there is no sand or soil between them to hold them in place, they're unstable and a tad treacherous to walk on. They picture below is blurry because just as I took it, I slid on the loose cobbles and landed on my butt.

The rocks right along the shore are covered in California mussels, and the tidal pools are full of fascinating sea life, like anemones...

sea stars...

and more anemones. Visitors are allowed to gently reach in to touch them. They feel sticky.

Back up the stairs and on to the lighthouse!

A memorial to those lost at sea

From a lookout point by the lighthouse, we were delighted to spot seals on the beach below.

Our next stop was Agate Beach just down the coast from the lighthouse. The tide was out but, but from the right angle, you could see how saturated the sand was. It kind of looked like walking on water.

I am a rock hound and have been all my life, so interesting rocks are very often the sort of souvenirs I like to bring home with me when I travel. There's something about the tactile nature of them that brings the place where I collected them back to mind vividly. That said, visitors are not allowed to take cobbles from Cobble Beach, but the rangers on duty said we were free to collect shells or driftwood, so I did. At Agate Beach, I found a cobble-like stone and some pumice to add to my little souvenir hoard. (The horse and skull are from the model horse show of course.)

The afternoon was winding down by this point and the rain was picking up, so we headed back into town to poke around the various galleries on the main street by the bay. We followed the sound of barking and grunting to find these sea lions lounging around near the marina.

The lovely Yaquina Bridge again

This sign is posted prominently in and around Newport. Not something I've ever seen before!

Back over the mountains after an excellent adventure

More PNW travels to come! And more Colorado on the horizon!