We walked around Old Colorado Springs for a little bit today. There are a few cute stores down there!
We stopped at a bakery (La Baquette) and of course got a baguette and some croissants. Next we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got a chocolate covered apple (The best part was how they sliced it! I loved that option. It makes it much easier to eat/share.), a piece of dark chocolate toffee (this one was really good!), and a pecan bear (a turtle).
Next we headed to Bear Creek park. Ben finally got to try out his hammock that he got for his birthday. He has been missing relaxing in his hammock chair that he had at the house. Since we bought the hammock, there hasn’t been anywhere to hang it. However, when we were driving around exploring a few days ago, we saw this park. It has the perfect hammock trees, as evidenced by the multiple hammocks in use.
He relaxed and I took the boys on an obstacle course. It was a little overgrown in spots, but they had a blast. We finished it off with the boys kicking around the soccer ball. We headed off when some rain moved in.
The boys needed to stretch their legs. By that I mean I needed to wear them out a little bit. They had too much pent up energy, which is never good in 400 SF.
I found a walking/hiking area not too far from our campsite, the Red Rock Canyon Open Space. There are a few different trails in the park. It had two parking lots, one with a portalet.
It was 91 degrees F when we went hiking. We wore our sunscreen and hats, plus brought our water bottles. AllTrails app didn’t pick up on the trails until we were at the park, although I’m not sure why. The app at least still showed our GPS on the trails so we didn’t get too far off track.
There were several rock formations that were interesting to see. Even though it was hot in the sun, the trail did have several spots for shade from the trees and/or rocks, which made it really nice. We saw a few birds around, but no other animals. I did get to see a woodpecker looking for food in a tree, which was fun to watch. The trail was frequently lined with small flowers and cacti along the edges. There were both bikers and hikers on the trails.
At the beginning of the trail, we also saw the rare moody teenage boy. He was in the beginning stages of what we affectionately call “Trail Rage”. It doesn’t happen on every trail, but it does often come out when video games are interrupted to go on a walk/hike. There are several stages of Trail Rage: grumpiness (“Ugh, really?” is often heard.), pouting (“Why do I have to come? It’s just another dumb trail.”, or something similar.), angry face, storming off ahead and ignoring that he is with anyone else, extreme angry face, and eventually we calm back into acceptance and if we are lucky happiness.
We eventually headed back and took a shorter way to see the pond. It was beautiful! The rocks looked white towards the water and turned to red. There were a few trees and shrubbery around the edges. We didn’t get down to the water to dip our toes in, as there were people on the paths down and the boys were tired.
It was a pretty nice trail and a great walk for the day.
After an orientation session for online school in the morning, we went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings today. I remember going to Mesa Verda when I was a kid, and being amazed that anyone could build on the side of a cliff. I wanted the boys to get an idea of these dwellings, but Mesa Verde was way out of our way (like 6 hours one way). I found the Manitou Cliff Dwellings while searching for things to do online.
According to their website, the dwellings were originally in McElmo Canyon. To help preserve the ruins, they moved them to their new location and reassembled the structures. They used a concrete mixture to reassemble so that people could walk through the buildings.
Entrance was $33.08 for the three of us. It doesn’t take a long time to walk through the dwellings, maybe an hour. Although they are amazing, they won’t take your breath away quite as much as Mesa Verde. However, if you can’t make it to Mesa Verde, these are still historical ruins and a great history lesson. The boys actually enjoyed it and Nick read a few of the signs.
There is an inside museum, as well, in the visitor center. The boys read about baskets, water containers, weapons, and pottery. Nick liked learning that they smothered the fire in the kiln with horse manure to get the black color on the pottery.
We ran to Walmart for a few items.Once back at the campground, we did a load of laundry and went swimming in the evening. It was amazing because we had the pool all to ourselves! We discovered that Will has finally passed me up. The beginning of summer, I still had a little height on him, but it looks like he finally eeked past me a little bit.
I have a YouTube video of our walkthrough at the Cliff dwellings.
We woke up a little early so we could drive up to Pikes Peak. I still felt dehydrated from yesterday.
Ben and Nick packed a lunch for us and we were off.
There was construction at the peak, so you can drive to mile marker 13 or 16, park and then take a shuttle up to the top.
I drove on the way up. There are some amazing views! It’s beautiful. (Ben drove on the way down so I could take pictures! 🙂 ). There is a video of the drive up on the You Tube Channel. Right now I can only post 15 minute videos, so I tried to grab the best parts of the drives up and down the mountain. (I had 2 hours of footage!) There are a few things to see besides the mountains in the video, so I have a Video Scavenger Hunt if you want to try it: Bigfoot/Sasquatch Crossing, Scariest Portalet, Tutus, Marmot Sunning, Overheated Car, Injured Biker, Race Cars, Santa.
On the way up, we saw several groups of bicyclers and also a lot of trucks with trailers. Apparently on 8/30, there is a race to the top of Pikes Peak (the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb) and the cars were doing test runs that morning. We saw all kinds of cars coming down the mountain! That must be one scary race. There were no guard rails on a lot of the edges!
We parked at mile marker 16. Parking was frustrating. The two attendants didn’t communicate very well. The one had me turn down a lane that was full. The other attendant told me to wait and then forgot about me for 10 minutes. When I finally started backing up, then he directed me to a new parking area.
We got in line for the shuttles. The upper restrooms were locked, but the lower ones were open. The line moved relatively quickly thanks to all the shuttle buses they had working.
We caught a shuttle up to the top and walked to the visitor center/gift shop. We wandered around looking at the items. Ben and Will headed out and Nick and I got in line for donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate. We all walked over to the rocky area near the end of Devil’s Playground trail (aka Crags Trail). We walked/climbed towards the middle to enjoy our treats. When we were done eating, we moved closer to the edge. The views were incredible. We saw a plane flying by and we were higher than the plane!
The normal viewing platforms were closed, as was the train. I would definitely recommend walking towards Devil’s Playground trail area for better views. It was hazy (later heard it was due to wild fire smoke from our bus driver down), and you couldn’t see much of anything besides construction equipment at the viewing area in the back of the gift shop area. It is a bit of a climb and harder to get to, but the views are definitely worth it near the rocky area.
We saw a few marmots on our drive up and back. They were sunning on the rocks. There were a few birds around as well. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the Big Horn Sheep. Our driver down said she normally sees them on her trips, but hadn’t yet today. She thought maybe the test driving scared them away this morning. She did have a tip though for spotting them, as they blend in with the rocks. Look for white moving objects. It will be their tail end, but she said it’s the easiest way to spot them. Also on the way back down, she pointed out Cheyenne Mountain and NORAD.
After getting back into our truck, we headed back down. (You need to use lower gear to drive down and Ben took advantage of the truck’s awesome exhaust brake.) We had a couple of stops on the way to the bottom. They stop you at mile 13 to do a brake temperature check. If your brakes are too warm, they make you park and let them cool off for 30-45 minutes. Our first stop was the Halfway Picnic area. We found a table in the shade with some nice views. We saw a ground squirrel sunning on a rock nearby.
It’s been a few days, maybe even a week, since an injury! Our streak came to an end when Nick decided to take a “short-cut” over a drainage ditch and didn’t quite make it. Now, it wasn’t a large dip, just very rocky. He scrapped his leg up pretty good. I didn’t have any of the really large band-aids, so used gauze instead.
After lunch and a little first aid, we continued our descent and stopped at the Crystal Reservoir. There was a wood statue of Bigfoot, a gift shop, and nice views of the reservoir.
Toward the bottom of the mountain is the North Pole. It’s a Christmas themed amusement park. Admission is free, although it does cost money to ride the rides. There were only 3 or 4 rides running when we were there (not sure if due to social distancing restrictions or not) and the wrist band costs $10. We didn’t ride any rides, but did enjoy walking around and shopping. It was a cute area with several neat little shops. We picked up a couple of things for Christmas. It’s a cute place, especially with free admission, so don’t pass it up on your way down from Pike’s Peak!
Once home, Ben made us breakfast for dinner with the new double sided cast iron griddle we bought at Cabela’s. It was the first time we had used it, but it worked amazingly with the bacon. It is the Chef Camp Reversible Cast Iron Griddle*. We found the 14″ at Cabela’s and Amazon has the 16″.
We decided to drive back to Garden of the Gods. Not for hiking, nope not ready for that again. I am still thirsty from yesterday. This time we just drove through and enjoyed the sunset. The landscape and the colors changed in the setting sun. The sunset behind the rocks was amazing. The sunset also brought out several mule deer in the park.
We worked on laundry in the morning. There is a breakfast food stand/truck in the campground, so once we got the washers going, we walked over and enjoyed pancakes and breakfast burritos. Nick ran a burrito back to Ben so he could enjoy it while he was working.
We spent a little time playing in the arcade after folding the laundry.
We decided to drive to Garden of the Gods. We decided to take a hike around the park. After 2.5 miles, the kids were done. It was hot and very, very sunny, not a lot of shade. We took a shortcut back and ended up with a 2.8 mile hike.
Family picture and Kissing Camels (the rocks, not us)
We were all dehydrated by the end, even with the water we brought.
We drove to Manitou springs and walked around. It was about 5:30pm when we got there, and the summer hours posted showed most of the town closed at 6:00.
We found a couple of the spring fountains that Manitou is known for. Each spring is supposed to have a slightly different flavor. We only tried one today, and it tasted just like fizzy (carbonated) water! The fountains are located throughout town and are free for use. There were people walking around filling up their water bottles to try the different waters.
We ordered a pizza from Hell’s Kitchen to bring back to the RV for dinner. It was a long wait for the pizza, but the taste was pretty good! It had a nice crust, not heavy on the sauce.
Manitou Springs had several more large objects for Will as well, so those pictures will be coming soon! 🙂
The truck’s Replace Fuel Filter came on. Of course, having had all gasoline cars before, this was our first time with this particular warning light. I wanted to get this fixed ASAP since we would be driving in the mountains and moving again in a couple of weeks. Now, according to Google, it should have been good until 30,000, but we are only at about 15,000 miles.
I looked on Yelp and Google reviews. The first place I called couldn’t get us in for a few weeks. He did recommend another place to try and I gave them a call. Chuck’s said to come over and he would squeeze us in.
They didn’t have an inside waiting area, but did have a picnic table outside. It was in the sun and the boys got very antsy after awhile. We walked up a couple of blocks to Cheese Haus and got honey sticks and cheese curds. Nick loved the cheese, but Will wasn’t a huge fan of either. Apparently the honey was too sweet. Huh…honey is sweet? Who knew?!
We walked a little farther up the hill and stopped at a candy store. We got a few pieces of taffy for the kids to eat while waiting and I got a turtle. Walking back down the hill, we finished waiting for the car.
I was so relieved to have one thing fixed and off our plate when the truck was done. It was cheaper than the first place had quoted us too, so that was another win!
While we were gone, Ben had reserved us time at the RV park’s pool. There was a nice covered section that we could sit out of the sun. The pool was also nice and warm (it’s heated, plus sits in full sun). We took a few minutes to explore the arcade as well.
Moving day! The boys and I got a lot of the RV ready to move while Ben worked. When he was done we finished packing up and got on the road. We were still going to be in Colorado and it was going to be a pretty short drive to our next campground (just 1 1/2 hours).
There was a lot of construction on our way down. The RV park only had a back-in spot when we booked and I had called down a few days before to see if they had any pull-throughs available. They said they would see what they could do.
Unfortunately, our site was a back in. The plus was it was a little shaded! It’s been pretty warm and dry so far in Colorado (getting to 90 most days), so the shade was really nice. We had just enough room to put up Ben’s tent.
That was where the decent day ended.
The new bike rack made the turning tighter. I didn’t notice right away because I was paying attention to the RV back up camera and truck side view mirrors. I knew when to stop when it was just the RV and the truck, but hadn’t accounted for the bikes. I thought (stupidly) that they wouldn’t be in the way. The bolts on Will’s bikes tires ended up scratching the paint on the truck and the truck cap. It also made the rear wheel of Will’s bike now rub against the frame. There is no visible big bend in the wheel. We’re going to see if anyone can fix it, but it is the back wheel with the gears.
We have some extra paint for the truck, if I can find where we packed it, so I can help fix the truck and the cap.
Now the next part is not so easy to fix, nor do I have any idea of how it happened.
The rear passenger stabilizer arm bent. We didn’t have it down yet. We had leveled before putting the stabilizers down. I really can’t think of what we could have done to have caused this.
On the plus side, it’s nothing that is integral to the moving of the RV. (I don’t think.)
It was just not a good day and very stressful. Tempers were high and there was some arguing. Having loud neighbors up until long after quiet hours probably didn’t help anyone’s mood.
We didn’t really have a plan where to store the bikes when we bought them. The back bumper of the RV can only support 150 pounds. I was worried about being too close in weight with the combined weight of the bikes and a rack. We also did not have a rack attachment for the front of the truck.
Back bumper is welded on, so can only hold 150 lbs.
So far, Nick’s had been laying down in their room. Eventually we tried hooks to hang it off their bunks. That way did work, although we kept hitting our heads on the hooks when we went to get anything from the under bunk areas.
Will’s was wrapped in the outdoor rug and placed on the dinette once it was folded down for travel. (Which of course meant that everything was covered in a layer of dust/dirt when we unpacked again. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying.)
Once we got to a campground, we could chain them up outside, so it was a lot easier.
Ben saw a bike rack he thought would work while he was walking around the campground. It attached on the front of the RV, over the jack. After looking online, we found it at Camping World: the Jack-It Double Bike Rack. I checked online and it showed they had some in stock, so we headed over. Nope, they didn’t have any! The guy at the parts department told me to never trust the website, as it doesn’t update stock often. I called another Camping World to make sure they had it in stock and asked them to hold it for me (it was another 40 minute drive). They did hold it for me, and we also found a collapsible dish drying rack.
On our way back home, we stopped at Costco for some groceries and a pizza. Ben surprised me and bought me an electric bike for an early birthday present so I could ride with the boys, even if my ankle or knee are bothering me. The boys were very excited that I could ride bikes with them. Ben even took a ride on it.
Once home, we unpacked groceries and started to work on installing the bike rack. It took a little finagling to get it into place. To install it, we had to remove our electric jack. We then had to angle the Jack-It just the right way so we could slide the electric RV jack through the opening in the middle and not squish the jack’s electric cord.
We got it attached and arranged the bikes on it. We may have to play around with it a little more to get the bikes situated just right.
For our stay in Denver, we stayed at Cherry Creek State Park. It was actually in Aurora, Colorado, but it wasn’t a long drive to get into downtown Denver. The nice thing about the park is that you seem tucked away from everyone, but stores are 10 minutes or less away. There were several Costco’s, Targets, and Kings Soopers (Kroger’s for those from back home) within 20 minutes or less. There was also a Camping World and Cabela’s within 40 minutes or so.
To camp in Cherry Creek State Park, you need a state park pass: $80/annual or $4/day. We ended up getting an annual pass because we weren’t sure how many state parks we would be visiting during our stay in Colorado. You can buy online and print out a temporary number. A physical pass will also mailed to you.
There is a welcome office with small shop (postcards, firewood-although there was a wood fire ban in effect when we were there, ice cream bars, etc). When we were there, the office closed at 4:00pm.
The campground is pretty spread out, with a mix of tent and RV sites. RV sites areas are a mix of back-in and pull through. Some sites have shade and others were in full sun.
Setting up after getting backed in
It looked like all the RV spots had a concrete pad, a fire pit/grill and a picnic table. I was really happy with the layout of our site. It felt roomy. We could even put up Ben’s pop-op gazebo/clam shell shelter, for an outdoor space. The hook ups were on the opposite side of the picnic table (at least for our spot) and on the same side as the RV hookup connectors. It made for an easy set up.
The main shower house had bathrooms, showers (paid), food vending machines, and laundry. The laundry was $1.50/load on both the washers and dryers. There were 4 of each machine. There was also a vending machine with single load detergent and fabric softener. It looked like they were $1 each. Showers were $0.50/3minutes. There was a change machine located outside the laundry room to provide quarters for everything in the bath house. The food vending machines sometimes gave change back in $1 coins!
Although you can see the road in the distance depending where you are in the campground, you don’t get a lot of road noise during the week but some on the weekends. However, you will get airplane noise as it seems to be in the flight path of Denver airport.
There are several hiking trails in the park. Cherry Creek also has a dog park area, a lake (boat rentals available), and a horse rental area. There are a lot of bikers in the park (the bicycle kind) as well. We did not get to swim in the lake, although there is a beach area. There were signs warning of blue-green algae, so we stayed out of the water.
The boys have made another campground walk-through video. Although it was really hot that day, so they stayed on just our section of the campground.
If we were in the Denver area, I would stay here again.
Today the boys and I took a hike in Cherry Creek State Park. I found a new trail on AllTrails: the Wetland And Cherry Creek Loop. It looks like it was a combination of a couple of trails. The beginning was easy to follow, but it did get confusing at times, so I was glad we had the GPS on the app.
It was a 5.3 mile trail, and we did 5.1 miles of it. We ended up taking a short cut at the end because we were tired and it was all sun at that point, so we cut back through the wetlands trail where there was more shade.
We saw two deer back in the woods, 2 hummingbirds (My favorite part! I love hummingbirds.), some butterflies (including some Monarchs, I think), several ducks, and some herons or cranes.
We wore our boots and long socks, which was definitely needed. The trail went from gravel/paved to a tiny path through weeds/grasses/stickler bushes.
It definitely wore the kids out for a least a few minutes!
I had some neat pictures of the wildlife, but my memory card died at the end of the hike. It is now saying it is corrupted, so I can’t get the pictures off of it. I did get some on my phone though!
