It all started when Houston started getting terribly hot, hitting new records and we started looking for cooler places to migrate to.. Denver got selected after considerably browsing of the US physical map and airlines sites... And on landing in Denver and every moment we spent there, we knew we had made the right choice...
We had decided to stay closer
to Colorado springs, closer to the mountains but what we didnt predict was that our vacation would start right from when we left the airport..The drive was beautiful with the mountains in the background set against a brilliant blue sky on a road full of ups and downs. The distinct blue sky owed its color to less water vapor in Denver as explained in one of the manuals. Having said soo much about the sky and water vapour, would like to justify it with one more snap...
The scenic drive effectively delayed our trip and we went straight to river rafting instead of our Bed and Breakfast Inn. After a wonderful time rowing the raft, splashing, jumping and getting wet to the skin in the fresh river water, we headed for some pl
ace to eat which led us to explore the small little town of Canyon City. The downtown had a village charm with its queer little shops, masonic temple and local pizza outlet (where we devoured on awesomee pizzas)...On the way to our Inn we were in for another visual treat. We saw 2 rainbows, complete ones!
It was a fantastic sight, with all the VIBGYOR colors standing out. This is the first time I saw a semi-circle arc and it was a pity we could not capture it in a single frame and had to resort to recording a video to fit the entire rainbow...We reached our pretty inn and were warmly welcomed by the hosts.
The Inn stood facing a pen where we had a dirty looking Llama (First time I saw one, so I was very interested, dirty or not!) and some white goats. There were friendly dogs running all around and we were also warned of sighting of bears(though we (un)fortunately didnt run into any!)
The next day we had planned for an very early hike up the Pikes Peak. It was supposed to be a trek from around 11000ft to 14,100ft elevation. We had estimated it would take us about 8 hours so we were all set with warm dresses, full backpacks and useful tips from everyone we met! We started almooost on time as planned and with high hopes we started for the Crag's trail.
It was perfect hiking weather with warm sunshine and cool breeze, this made sure we could capture our photos with good lighting and stay cool at the same time. It was a real pleasure to walk among the fabulous scenery with rocks jutting out at wild angles and mild forest flowers at every step. The path of the hike was very clear at the beginning starting off as a small walking passage with grasses and shrubs on either sides . As we proceeded higher up, we noticed the passage was completely missing and we started walking through the clearings among the trees. We even managed to lose our way due to some voices we heard. We followed the human voices instead of the trail and realized a bit late that the voices were coming directly above us and had to head back
Then we met some people coming down and were suprised to find people returning soo early and wondered how early they must have started for Pikes Peak. We asked them how further up we need to go to reach the peak and they said you are almost there and even praised the incredible view from the top.
Now to set the context of timing, we had completed almost 1 and half hours of trekking and had stopped at every possible minute to admire the landscape around us. So to hear that we were close to peak did seem incredible :)... So we made one more attempt and asked them if Pikes Peak was really that close thats when they said you are on the Crag's trail and Pikes Peak trail was something we had missed right in the start of the trail. As it did not seem like a viable option to go all the down and start afresh we continued to the crags along the four mile trek. The peak did not let us down, it gave us a fantastic view of the Rocky mountains and of the Pikes Peak :)... The trail also got a lot rocky the closer we got to the peak giving us some rock scrambling experience too..
Pikes peak or Crags Peak, nevertheless is was an exhilarating experience to get to the peak and capture the splendid view all around us. After spending considerable time at the peak to commensurate our efforts to get up there, we started our hike down. We found that the scenery had only gotten more beautiful in the meanwhile and we took our time to shoot and smell the flowers :)...
We left the trek and headed for some sumptuous Mexican lunch. We managed to just reach the restaurant when it started pouring down and we were thankful that we actually missed the Pikes Peak trail else we would be up at 14,000ft battling the rain. An hail storm quickly followed making us feel even better about the hike!
Our next visit was a gold mine, having heard so much about the Colorado gold rush this was one thing we didnt want to miss and after the trip we were glad we didnt! We were taken 1000ft underground in the Mollie Kathleen Gold mine. After the shaky but quick descent into the cold and dark mine,
our brilliant guide managed to take us to the very times when the mining was started in these mines. He started off explaining how difficult it would have been to mine the caves 60 years back. It was amazing to imagine how men could be lured by gold to work under candle light with just hammer and anvil for tools for meagre pays. We increasingly also understood how dangerous a profession it could be. The guide also explained the usage of mining tools from the old crude ones to the comparatively sophisticated ones used now. We then identified the purple vein called the golden vein which ru
ns across the rocks which differentiates a rock from the gold ore. We left the golden mines with golden halos around our heads with the newly possessed information on mining!Next day, we visited another historical landmark called Garden of the Gods. It has these stunning red rock formations which got its name when one townbuilder remarked, 'this place is fit for the Gods to live'.
We went to the visitor centre and could capture the Garden of the Gods against the blue skies along with the Rockey mountains and snow-clad Pikes peak. We even watched a HD show on the formation of red rocks. We did quite some justice to the place and in the process missed our flight back to Houston from Denver!
The elusive Pikes peak...
