Colorado Springs, CO

When you think of Colorado, what comes to mind? The Rocky Mountains, Denver, Boulder, etc. Generally, no one thinks about Colorado Springs… So when we sat down the day before visiting, to figure out what we were going to do there, we were surprised to find that there actually was more interesting things to do than we had time for!




Colorado Springs began as the first capital of Colorado, back when it was founded as Colorado City by famous characters such as Buffalo Bill. Driving in, we noticed that the city itself is much larger than you would think. There is a ton of relatively new suburban neighborhoods sprawling out for miles from the city. But then the downtown itself is pretty small, giving the city an interesting feel. As if it was more an expansive town, rather than a city. All with the awesome backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.



Our first stop was to visit the Garden of the Gods. Ages ago, two tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust collided. One was forced underneath the other and began to melt. The rising magma combined with the already elevated plate to form the great peaks of the Rockies. Before being forced up by this action, the earth was layers of different sandstone deposits on top of a layer of granite. When the granite of the Pikes Peak region around Colorado Springs was pushed up, the sandstone layers above it were fractured. In places the sandstone layers became vertical. And as water began to erode away the land, the harder red rock of the Garden of the Gods was left exposed for all to see.

They are pretty spectacular! Pretty surreal though as well… For centuries people have been drawn to the area, and have given the formations some interesting names like Tower of Babel…

And Kissing Camels…

Siamese Twins…

And Balanced Rock…

But the best part of the park is the combination of red rock, land, and mountains beyond…

Next we headed into town and checked out the “Old Colorado City” area. I was hoping for an old west look but really it just reminded us of a large town, besides some of the decoration and one really old building…

Then on to check out the US Olympic Training facility, one of 3 such facilities in the country. Athletes from around the country come here to stay permanently and train for their specific sport, or come for intervals of high altitude training. The primary focus of the facility is winter sports and, for a time, many of the teams and individuals we watched on tv were housed here. However, many of the different sports have recently created their own training facilities around the country. Still, there are usually at least 130 full time athletes at any one time, as well as a constant flow of sports camp. We got to take a tour of the whole thing…

After the tour we got to watch the introductory movie that we had missed at the beginning. Short films about the Vancouver games earlier this year and about the ParaOlympic program. If you haven’t seen any of the paraolympic events, it’s pretty incredible. Can’t think of another way to describe the athletes who participate… Just incredible. At one point in the film, though, they showed paraolympic ice hockey highlights. Basically the participants are strapped onto a board with a single long skate underneath it. They then have poles on either arm for propulsion, maneuverability, shooting, etc. There was one highlight where a player scooped the puck behind his back with one stick and then shot and scored with the other. It was awesome! I giggled it was so good…



Megs was mortified. At least until afterwards when I explained… Such a great play!! USA! USA!

By this time it was mid afternoon, time for one more sight before heading off to Denver. We decided to check out the US Air Force Academy, just north of the city. It was an incredible spot for an academy campus! We got to walk around the public part of the campus and take in the interesting design and architecture…

We also got to run through the museum before it closed. A really cool place to visit. And, for me, an interesting contrast to the Naval Academy, which I visited for the first time in May.



We managed to leave without causing any international incidents and where on our way north to Denver. Sort of.  We actually passed by the city and headed to stay with my friend Susan who runs a residence hall on the University of Northern Colorado campus in Greeley, CO.



So we had a busy day! We had contemplated going to check out the Cliff Dwellings but were turned off by the $9.50 per person price tag. There were definitely a few places we’d love to check out next time though. Pikes Peak can either be hiked or driven, and there are some interesting falls in the area including Seven Falls.



Our gracious host Susan took us in that night. Let us do laundry, take showers. And even made us dinner!! She’s so money.