Our Excursion: 20230920: Colorado Trip Day 11 – Colorado Springs
(Part of trip: )
Date of our excursion: 2023-09-20
Location: Colorado Springs, CO - Helen Hunt Falls, Garden of Gods, Red Rock Canyon, Glen Eyrie
Mileage: 10.52
Our Planned Itinerary:
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Travelers on this Excursion: |
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We hit some cool places.
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Continents: North America |
Some featured areas we visited: |
Some points of interest we hit: |
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Colorado Springs – Helen Hunt Falls, Garden of the Gods, Red Rock Canyon
This morning, the advanced team gets to check out the castle’s breakfast. They also have to check out of their palatial estate in preparation to move into the tower room this evening. Could it possibly get any better than their fabulous General Suite, with all the uniformed men staring at them, the vast expanse of floor to ceiling windows in the bathroom, and of course the shower of 360 degree water sprays? We shall see!
To be admitted to breakfast, you had to give your tickets to the ever-friendly host. She then gave you a verbal tour of the buffet, described all of the specialties in detail, and carried on a pleasant conversation until she heard your stomach growling. Breakfast was delicious and beautifully laid out. Much food, tea, and chocolate milk was sampled (more than a few times). Some friendly people joined the table and chatted until the breakfast closed. Time to go hike!
The first hike was at Helen Hunt Falls. While the advanced team was hiking around the falls, the lagging team was leaving Denver and traveling down to Colorado Springs. First stop for them was Garden of the Gods to walk around those trails and see some giant rocks and nature. From many places around the area, we can see a narrow staircase shooting straight up a mountain, all the way to the top. Does that look fun? Is that what we are planning to hike tomorrow? Yes, it sure is! Are we ready? who knows…
We all met up at the next park: Red Rock Canyon. Here we get to walk through a bunch of large rocks. There is a giant off leash dog park and a bike park with jumps and other obstacles.We are not allowed in there.
We then head back to the castle to check into our rooms. The lady at the gate tells us about her wildlife visitors/friends. She also is slightly alarmed when the advanced team pulls up and starts waving and shouting at us all. Then they leave and we tell her we know them and she realizes we were all joking aroung. It then all makes sense to her, that we are the people that they told her would also be staying here. She said – ‘ohyeah, they warned me about you! And I was supposed to give you a hard time!’ Well, we made it through the gate after hearing the history of General Palmer and the castle.
At the check-in desk, a similar experience. The check-in lady asks if we are here with others who have the same last name and then shares that she has been chatting with them, they warned her about us, and she has been having fun chatting with them. Hmmm… apparently, the advance team is very friendly, chatty, and outgoing when us grumpy unsocial people aren’t around. We were given a room and head to the castle.
Apparently, we arrived right after a huge group because there were so many people in the halls that we thought there were some tours going on. But, turns out they were all just being excorted tot heri rooms. We didn’t realize you were supposed to wait for an escort so we headed up the stairs. All the rooms had the doors open with velvet ropes across the doorway. We thought these were show rooms but no – these are the guest rooms that are show-rooms when no one is staying in them. We finally located our room, which was the middle daughter’s room. We were told multiple times – oh- that’s a nice room too (is that like – oh, she’s got a great personality??)
It’s a nice room with a view of the courtyard. There’s a huge mirror by the toilet so you can multitask and also floss your teeth and brush your hair. The problem with the room is that the radiator on one wall and bumpout on another wall and the large ac unit don’t allow the bed to fit in a normal location/position so it is kind of kitty corner and has to be awkwardly arranged. But, other than that, it’s a geat room – great water pressure, 2 sitting chairs, a desk, large wardrobe, separate sink room. It’s not the size of the general’s room, but it is more than sufficient for our needs. However, we will not be having the evening tea in our room!
Dinner is at Rudy’s. Lots of smoked meat. Brisket, pulled pork, smoked baked potato, cheddar jalapeno sausage, spiced chop. Spiced chop is yesterday’s brisket (probably) that has been marinated and slowcooked in a barbq sauce. It’s very tender and very tasty. It was all great food!
Evening tea is in the tower room. There is one guest room on the 4th floor. This is it. Well, there is a strange carpeted ladder heading to a door and the host room is halfway between the 3rd and 4th floor, but actually on the 4th is just this massive room. The 4th floor is accessed by a private staircase. The stairs lead right to the room door. It’s a circular room with floor to ceiling (very high ceiling) windows, a large fireplace with 2 benches, a bathroom, another seating area, and a humongous sink. The bummer about this room is the low water pressure from being at such an elevation and the 4 flights of stairs you have to climb to make it to the room! Good practice for tomorrow’s climb!