RoadTrip: Denver and Colorado Springs

Red Flowers, Red Rocks

After waking, we watched some TV from bed before showering and starting our day.  We drove over to Brett's friend's house to then drive over to Red Rocks Park on the west side of Denver. We did some hiking around the trails and then decided to head towards the amphitheater.

Emily, Megan, Billy, and Brett at Red Rocks

The amphitheater was amazing and we could only imagine how cool it would be to see a killer show there.  I remembered back in high school listening to my sister's Dave Matthews Live at Red Rocks CD. I am almost positive I had no idea where Red Rocks was or even what Red Rocks was.  The museum at the theater was very nice and it had a wonderful history of all the shows that had been put on on the stage.  I enjoyed the part about how the Beatles sold out every show on their Beatlemania tour except for the show at Red Rocks, tickets were $5 and they didn't sell out.  Maybe Denver was more of Rolling Stones crowd.

After climbing the hundreds of stairs up and down at the amphitheater, we were in the mood to do some more hiking and we had seen a sign for Dinosaur Park just down the road.  We didn't know anything about this place but our expectations were nearing Jurassic Park levels by the time we pulled into the parking lot.  The parking lot said "Dinosaur Parking" but when we got out and explored it didn't seem like anything other than a parking lot.  After another attempt to find the real dinosaurs we just found a bike trail off of the parking lot and hiked up it.  It ended up being nothing special with views of I-70 and to the east, Denver.

Feeling beaten by the dinosaurs, we were tired and hungry.  That is exactly when you don't want to be hanging around me so I forced the group to stop and get some margaritas, chips, and salsa at a Mexican joint called the Morrison Inn in Morrison, CO.  After sharing a pitcher of some strawberry margaritas we went back to Emily's house where he mom had made some appetizers and chocolate chip pie, which was amazing, that we snacked on while chatting on their porch.  But before long, we had to head out to make it Colorado Springs.

We quickly found out that from the south side of Denver to Colorado Springs is a short drive and we easily made it to our campsite at Lone Duck Campground a few miles west of town.  We got a spot next to some other groups but had a creek to one side and trees surrounding us which gave us a little privacy.  This was Memorial Day weekend and the campground was 100% booked so we felt lucky to have a spot reserved.  The campground had a lot of things going on, there was a heated pool, fishing pond, game room, convenience store, and a mini kitchen.  They were also having pancake and sausage breakfast for the holiday weekend which families seemed to really enjoy but we decided to pass on those.

There is a lot that we wanted to do and see in Colorado Springs and after getting our camp set up we decided we wanted to start doing stuff.  Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, Air Force Academy, US Olympic Training Facility.  But we saw a brochure for Seven Falls and it was open at night so we headed in that direction as the other stuff all seemed to close at dusk.

The line of cars at Seven Falls was daunting but as pulled in to the parking lot we figured out the line wasn't because it was ridiculously crowded but that the parking lot was ridiculously small.  It only held about 75 cars and it was difficult to back out of spots with all the traffic.  We got lucky and found a spot way up front and quickly tried to distance ourselves from all the foreign tourists taking pictures of chipmunks and fake bear tracks in the sidewalk.

We climbed all 224 stairs up to the top of the falls and then realized that the better view was to climb up the other stairs to the "eagles' nest."  We then walked back down 224 stairs and up the 185 to get the better view.

We snapped a few pictures of the falls as the lights shining on the falls were changing colors.  The light effects looked pretty neat but it was also very touristy.  I am quite glad that National Parks don't do this type of thing.  Nature has a beauty all of its own, we don't need to manipulate it to make a few extra dollars.  Maybe I feel that way because they got a few dollars out of me.  Be warned, Seven Falls is a tourist trap but we did get a good leg workout.