After Colorado, we headed to Utah. We had had mostly hazy skies in Colorado during the last of our stay due to the wildfires. I was really worried about our route, as the highway we were originally going to use had been shut down. Luckily, it opened a couple of days before our departure.
Our drive was pretty uneventful, although long. We passed several signs that said “Wildfire in Area. Do Not Call 911.” and “No Stopping On Highway”. We saw some smoke in the distance, but no large fires. However, we did pass where the fire burned next to I-70. It was immense amounts of burned trees and shrubs. It was crazy. We did get stopped in traffic for about 20 minutes or so. It was standstill, but next to a creek, so at least it was pretty.
Wildfire smoke in the distance
We arrived at our campground after hours, so our paperwork was in the outdoor box waiting for us. This time we had a pull-through spot (YAY!), so it was a little quicker getting settled in. We got everything hooked up and did a quick grocery run in town.
It was almost sunset, so we drove into Arches National Park (about 15-20 minutes down the road). We missed a lot of the sunset, but managed to catch the end. Arches looks pretty neat and I can’t wait to explore it more.
For our stay in Colorado Springs, we stayed at the Garden Of The Gods RV Resort. There were tent sites, back-up and pull-through sites, and cabins for rent. We had a back-in 50 amp site. The electric post also had a spot for 20 amp, so we could run an extension cord for outdoor use (fan, bike charging, outdoor computer use).
There was WiFi and cable, although we didn’t have any luck with the cable. The WiFi was iffy as well since we were in the back. NOTE: Campground reviews listed AT&T as working there, but it does not work in the campground. We found this out when we checked in. Our T-Mobile and Verizon worked though.
The office sold a few souvenir type items, ice ($4.10/bag, including tax), and ice cream. They did accept packages and also had an outgoing mail box inside. The office closed at 4:00pm each day.
The laundry room had a folding table, 2 carts, a vending machine, 3 driers (although 1 was broken the time we were there), and washers. Dryers $0.25/8 minutes.They were x-large capacity dryers (could hold 3 loads). The washers were normal sized and cost $2.50/load. They did sell single use powder soap in the vending machines there for $1 and had some other laundry items for sale in the office.
There were two pools, although only one was open when we were there. It was heated and had a nice covered couch area, along with some chairs around the pool. Because of COVID, you did need to sign up for the pool. (Limit of 40 people, which seems really high for that size pool. No one really checked or seemed to keep track though.)
There was also an arcade, which the kids loved. It was mostly older machines (if you grew up in the 1980’s it was very nostalgic). Most games were $0.25. We were only there a couple of times. It seemed like little kids were sent there and never had masks on, so we tried to limit our time to when it was empty. Trying to social distance can be hard.
There were no individual fire pits, although there were two grills and two communal fire pits by the playground. There was a fire ban while we were there, so fires were not allowed. You could use the charcoal grills though. The playground was small and a little older. There was also a fenced in dog area.
The campground had two shower/bath houses. The one back by the playground was definitely nicer!
There was an on-site breakfast food truck that was open Wednesday to Saturday 8:00am to 12:00pm.
We were also right next to Manitou Springs, which is a really cute town. We made several trips in and enjoyed walking around.
Garden of the Gods was pretty much right up the street, about a 10 minute drive, Pikes Peak was about 30-45 minutes, Royal Gorge about 1.5 hours. The Olympic Training Center and Air Force Academy were closed to visitors due to COVID.
The location was convenient to attractions and grocery stores. There were two Costco’s within 40 minutes! There was a horse area close by, so sometimes in the morning you could smell it, but it wasn’t too bad. There was a full time RV or mobile home park on two sides. There were tarps overhanging the campground fence in several spots. I didn’t feel safe walking on the street by myself with the kids. The Garden Of The Gods RV Resort is fenced though.
NOTE: Beware when you make your reservation. When we had to restructure our trip, we were going to shorten or skip Colorado Springs. Because we had originally booked with Best Rate, Garden of the Gods RV would not refund, only let us move our reservation. They had had few other locations, but nowhere we were going to be. If you are worried about COVID ruining your plans, please do not choose Best Rate. Everyone there was nice, it just stinks about their policy even during a pandemic.
If we were in the area, I might stay here again, because the employees were nice and it was conveniently located, but I would definitely look more closely at the cancellation policy. We did get to see a lot, but one week would probably be long enough (not the two we had).
We kept it pretty relaxed today. We drove up to Manitou Springs looking for a birthday present. It was packed! We ended up parking up the hill by the school and walking into town. We did find a couple more Little/Free Libraries along the way. Will dropped off a book he had finished, but didn’t have much luck finding a new one this time.
We just kind of browsed and meandered through town. We tried a fresh squeezed blackberry lemonade. It was pretty good, although tart. The boys loved it and it was a nice treat on a warm day.
Remember how I had trouble finding a parking spot? It turns out they were having the Pikes Peak Marathon. What?! I can’t even imagine running from the town to the top of Pikes Peak and back down. We got to cheer on a few people crossing the finish line.
After town, we headed to Walmart to pick up some grocery and clothing items. It was a pretty relaxing day.
Today we went to Royal Gorge Bridge and Park when Ben was done with work. It’s about an 1 1/2 hr drive from the campground.
This was one of our more expensive outings so far. General admission included the gondola ride, bridge, and playground. ($29/ages 13+, $24/ages 6-12, 0-5 free. There is an online price as well, which is a couple dollars cheaper.) The zip line and Sky Coaster rides are extra. If you are even more adventurous, you can climb the gorge with Via Ferrata.
The gondola rides are conditional based on the weather (if it gets too windy they stop the ride). We didn’t want to miss the gondolas, so we headed over there first. There was a bit of a line, but with 6 cars (3 each way) it moved fairly quickly. They were putting each family group in their own gondola, so you weren’t riding with strangers. It was a smooth ride, no real bumps or jostling. It was crazy to see how deep the gorge was. We could also see the train moving along the bottom of the gorge next to the Arkansas river. Once on the other side, they disembarked passengers one car at a time for social distancing. (Sidenote: They claim the gondolas are the longest single span aerial gondolas in America, and the bridge is the highest suspension bridge in North America.)
On the other side of the gorge, we walked around for a little bit. There was a playground (we didn’t go on, too many little kids), some food options, and a stage where a band was getting ready to play. The only audience waiting for the show to start were the big horn sheep who were munching on the grass. We watched the gorge’s history video at the Plaza Theater and then walked the bridge. The original aerial tram and incline burned in a wild fire in 2013. The gondolas replaced the tram. There is no incline anymore, although the track is still there. It looked really cool, so I hope they bring it back.
Tiny red dots are people zip lining, 1 of the gondolas (we were in the other), kid area/playground
We walked over the bridge to get back to the parking lot/Visitor Center side of the gorge. I had been here many years ago as a kid (maybe when I was 12?). There were definitely wind gusts still and some swaying, but not as bad as I remember. I think the kids enjoyed seeing it.
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! 🙂
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!
After working all day, Ben wanted to unwind and explore a little bit. We didn’t want a huge drive, so after some Google searching, we settled on Idaho Springs. I think during non-Covid times, this would be a really cute town to walk around in. They had a pizza place that looked amazing (unfortunately we had already eaten), several cute stores, and some brewery type restaurants. Unfortunately, a lot of the stores were closed even on a Friday evening.
We (I may have pushed it a little bit since we were so close) decided to drive to Saint Mary’s Glacier. (Thank you Allison for the idea!) I found the path on my trail app, put in the directions, and we were off. The road goes up the mountain (as you might expect) and ends in a private drive. The road gets pretty twisty and turny in some spots. There were two parking lots off the side of the road (on the left when going up). The lots were $5 to park (cash only and you paid via envelope in a box). There were a few port-a-lets there, and while they were not full, they hadn’t been serviced in a while. The air was cooler, but not too bad even in shorts.
Now, this was spur of the moment and we were rushing to hike before we lost daylight. The trail app said it was a 1.9 mile trail and that the “trail up is mostly rocks but not terribly difficult”, so I figured it was on the harder side of easy to an easy-ish moderate trail. We didn’t have our hiking boots, although we did thankfully have our walking sticks/hiking poles (thanks Dad!). I also did not bring a water or our spray with us on the hike. Yeah, not my best moment.
The hike was not easy. Nope. Not even a little bit easy in the beginning.
The trail up is steeper and definitely covered in various sizes of rocks. Our lungs are also not quite used to the altitude here yet, so that may have made it harder as well. It also could be I am in worse shape than I thought. Trails out here are not the same as back home! The path branches off in several spots, some going towards a private property, so I was glad I had the trail app to stay on course.
I had to stop several times to let my lungs acclimate and calm down. Luckily I didn’t need my inhaler this time. The hiking poles helped a lot on the rocky areas.
There were a few other groups there, but it definitely wasn’t crowded. We saw what looked like a small wedding finishing up when we got to the lake. Someone else had a snowboard on his backpack.
It was beautiful. The lake has a small beach and we saw a few people with swim suits in their bags, so I’m not sure if they went swimming or not. I would think it would have been very cold water, as the air was quite a bit chillier than down in town.
You can hike right up to the glacier. It was amazing. I haven’t been that close to a glacier before…well I haven’t seen a glacier before either.
It was a great experience, although I do need to plan these out a little better!
We ended up rushing back down because the sun was starting to set and we didn’t want to still be on the trail when it got dark. Although we were stressed at the end to get back to the truck before dark and get down the mountain once the sun set, it was still an amazing experience. How many people can say they touched a glacier?
The boys and I went on a walk/hike today. I chose an easy one since my back has been giving me some problems the last couple of days.
The trail was nicely paved for parts and gravel for others, but all of it was nice and flat. There was not a lot of shade on the trail, so I am glad everyone put on sunscreen and wore their wide brim hats.
The trail wove across a few bridges, went near the lake, and through several prairie dog locations. We loved seeing them run around and call out to each other. They are so squeaky! (No wonder dogs loves squeaky toys.) I have a quick video up on the YouTube channel of them calling out to each other. The beginning of the path had a lot of bikers (bicycles not motorcycles) and even had a repair station with an air pump and some tools.
After hiking, we ran into Target to get Nick some new shoes. (This kid is rough on shoes!) We bought a few other things as well and headed to drop off some postcards. Once back in the campground, we did another load of laundry.
Ben wanted to run into Ikea when he was done with work, so off we went looking for couches. The couch in the RV is actually loveseat sized and not that comfortable long term. You can’t really lay down, the arm rests are too low to really give support but at the same time too high to use as a seat. Since we are going to be in here for a year, we thought we could replace the couch. It seemed fine when we bought the RV, but like anything you use daily, you quickly discover if it works well for you or not.
We found a couple of possibilities, but none that worked really well in the space. We’ll just keep looking.
I think the kids’ favorite part was when we were leaving. This store had an escalator ramp!
