"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!