Colorado Springs, Co

We have Internet Service here so I am going to try and catch up the blog. I am as much as possible going to make each posting for each city we have visited as opposed to each day at the location.

Today's blog will be about Colorado Springs, Co. We stayed at  a Passport America park for three days right in the city of Colorado Springs. It was not a pretty park, but it did have a view of the city and it was very convenient to everything!

Foot of the Rockies RV Park

After going to the Unser Racing Museum in Albuquerque we knew we needed to go to Pikes Peak! It is a road that goes 14,110 feet up a mountain. On the way up we came to Crystal Reservoir. As you can see it had quite a photo opportunity! Yes we really took this picture!!

Crystal Reservoir

As you can see the road goes up past the tree line. There are no guard rails and it is kind of nerve racking driving up this road.

Road to Pikes Peak

You know you are getting up in the sky when you look down on the clouds!

Above the clouds

Here we are in June and there was still a lake with ice on it. We never drove by it, but could see it from the summit of Pikes Peak.

Iced Lake

You can either drive the road to the summit or take a tram. We heard many people complaining that they were getting light headed or sick from the altitude. We think we are doing OK because we have been in altitude of over a mile high for several weeks now. They do recommend that you only stay at the summit for 1/2 an hour or so because of the altitude. We stayed for about an hour and felt good.

Pikes Peak

We headed back down the mountain. Because diesel trucks free wheel and don't have any engine compression when idling I stuck the tranny in second gear and took my time going down. I saw others riding their brakes the whole way down! STUPID!

Road Down

About half way down there is a mandatory brake check station. They use a temperature gun and check your brakes. If they are hot they make you pull over to cool off. Everyone we saw was made to pull over with their hoods up for airflow. We came up to the checkpoint and I said to the Ranger that I would be surprised if our brakes were hot. He checked them and said, you're right, they are cool. He suggested we keep it up for the next four miles, but keep on, no need to stop.

Brake Checkpoint

after Pikes Peak we went to Garden of the Gods. This is a city park in Colorado Springs that has some spectacular rock formations.

Garden of the Gods

There are roads throughout the park, or there are hiking trails you can hike on.

GOTG City Park

This rock looked like it was ready to fall, so I decided to help hold it up!

Balancing Rock

The next day we went to the USA Olympic Training Complex. The do hourly tours of the complex. There are over 100 athletes that live here full time and make training for the Olympics their full time jobs!

USA Olympic Training Complex

Here we are in front of the training center. 

USA Selfie!

The tour took us through many aspects of the training including shooting, wrestling, weightlifting, swimming and basketball.

Training Village

Here are some of the athletes doing some weightlifting.

Weightlifting

There were some athletes doing laps in the pool when we were here.

Olympic Pool

This is the closest we will get to the medal stand! But the tour was worth doing.

USA! USA! USA!

We enjoyed our time in Colorado Springs. Next stop is Loveland, Co. 

Thank you for reading and God Bless!

Brian and Patty