Hello everyone, yes our journey does continue in Colorado. We left Buena Vista and headed North to Golden Colorado. Our reasoning for that was our dear friends from Rochester Mn came to the area for a Gem show. We were able to visit with them a couple of different times and also get some amazing hikes in.
Visiting with our friends we went to a large gem stone show in Denver. Some of the stones are amazing to view. Brynn whom is near and dear to my heart owns The Beautiful Soul in Rochester Mn and bought inventory for her store. If you get a chance check out her store the web site is, Abeautifulsoul.com
During our hike I was fascinated that the mountains are speckled in topaz rocks that can cause the mountains to glitter against the sun. I took a couple of photos although the camera did not do it justice so I deleted them.
Our hiking began at the Garden of Gods. The park is located in Colorado Springs and is on the registered national park list. The park boasts 300′ sandstone rock formations. They are so beautiful to look at with the vast blues skies behind them. A short tidbit of information on the name behind Garden of the Gods. In 1859 two surveyors were exploring the area, they came upon one of the beautiful sandstone formations and one of the men thought it was a “capital place for a beer garden”. The other surveyor whom was young and poetic stated that the name was not to be “Beer Garden” it should be a place for the Gods to assemble, so he felt it should be called Garden of the Gods. Thus it has been ever since.
These photos do not do the beauty of this area justice.
Another area we hiked was near Indian Hills CO. We hiked the Mount Falcon Castle Trail. The hike is a 6.7 mile loop. The Elevation grain is 1601 ft. I did huff and puff but made it to the top to enjoy the spectacular views. We could see downtown Denver in the distance. This hike was one that had Topaz rocks imbedded in the soil and glittered when the sun would shine on them. Look closely at the photo on the left, you can see snow of the peak of the mountain.
We did a road trip on the back roads finding abandon mining towns, and small villages that boast simplicity and uniqueness.
One town we found was named Kittredge. This is Renees last name and she was telling me as a child her family drove through this town and took a picture by the same sign that Renee is next to. We also found a herd of Elk. They were meandering through town eating sunflowers and grazing on the grass and trees. The Buck was guarding his herd closely and at one point spotted me, glared at me for a second then charged slightly forward at me, I guess not wanting me around. The picture you see below is a photo I captured right before he charged at me. Of course, I ran behind a car and hid waiting until the coast was clear.
Remember “The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon.” Life is a journey, continue to explore.
Namaste