Welcome to Leg 9 of #ptparadsummer2019 (catch up on Leg 8, Leg 7, Leg 6, Leg 5, Leg 4, Leg 3, Leg 2, and Leg 1).  In the last post of this long trip, we finished some repairs on Patty after a travel day to Colorado Springs. 

Day 13 – How do you see Colorado Springs in one day?

We only scheduled one full day in Colorado Springs.  Because of that, we had a lot to see in a short time.  We got moving early to see everything we planned to visit.

Pike’s Peak

Erin and I went to Pike’s Peak many years ago, but the kids had not.  Our first priority in was to get them up on the mountain.  We found that there was construction on the peak.  The road was open until mile 16 on the road to the peak.  At that point we parked the truck and were corralled into shuttle buses to get the rest of the way to the top.

Initially we were disappointed by the news of the construction, but actually the bus drivers added some great context to the drive.  They spoke a lot about the mountain, the recent rally race, they stopped for views and animals, and were so plentiful we hardly had to wait going up or down.  At the peak, there was some inconvenience and some construction fences got in a few of our pictures (see the one above), but we still had a good visit.  The kids were impressed with being so high up.  We enjoyed the views for 15 minutes or so and made our way back to the truck and back down the mountain.

Our trip was a quick one, but we wanted to fit in Garden of the Gods before the afternoon.

Garden of the Gods

We got to Garden of the Gods in the late morning.  It was the height of summer, so we expected some crowds.  What we found weren’t crowds.  We found hordes.  The visitor center’s parking lot was totally packed.  There wasn’t a place to park the truck in many of the lots inside the park.  We opted to do a windshield tour instead of fight the crowd.  We drove around admiring the sights.  At Balanced Rock, we did manage to grab a spot on the road.  The kids enjoyed running around a bit, but so many people lessened the experience of enjoying nature.  A few minutes later we loaded back in the truck and made our way to lunch.

No one felt like driving back to Patty at Cheyenne Mountain State Park and making lunch so we found some lunch on the economy and headed to the north side of Colorado Springs.

Air Force Academy

The United States Air Force Academy sits on the north side of Colorado Springs.  The base is quite pretty.  We explored the visitor center, the Cadet Chapel, and the area that overlooks the Terrazzo.  The kids enjoyed learning about cadet life and exploring the exhibits throughout the Academy.

We continued to drive around and explore the base.  All day we got to watch cadets conducting Soaring Training.  We stopped at the airfield and watched several take-offs and landings.  No one had the idea to take a picture of the gliders.  We were too mesmerized to pull up a camera.  It took us about three hours to explore the Academy.

We ended the day having dinner with a family friend that lives in Colorado Springs.  The kids were pooped when we rolled into the campground.  It was quite a packed day and we had to miss so many things about Colorado Springs.  I’m sure we could have found many more things to do, but it was a good visit either way.

Next time we’ll leave Colorado Springs and head to Great Sand Dunes National Park and try our hand at sledding and dam building.

-See you out there

Part-Time Paradise