The Big Trip: Crossing Back Over the Rockies; Manitou Springs

Here is what we did after we left the above high-elevation campground in the Rockies:

We saw these moose grazing on the bank of what is the beginning of the Colorado River, believe it or not. There is no moose in our part of Wisconsin, so this was pretty special – I’ve never seen one before. I am told they don’t make good eatin’, though.

We passed by this reservoir. Wow, that water is low!

More sagebrush! Nice and dry here.

I am always thrilled to see a birdbox on a post. It must be for the mountain bluebird? Do they have them in that area?

We had to cross the Rockies again, so we climbed up the last wretched mountain pass – the last time I climb a mountain of any kind.

See the bowl shape in the mountain side? This is where a glacier sat at one point during the Ice Age.

Next we drove into a tourist town of Manitou Springs – a suburb of Colorado Springs, which, unfortunately, has been the site of some of the terrible recent wildfires. It missed us by only a week. We came here to ride the Pike’s Peak cog railroad (my husband and kids, that is), which goes up to the top of Pike’s Peak – the inspiration for “America the Beautiful.” The author rode the railroad, and that’s how the immortal line “purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain” was born.

You don’t see a lot of towns with this kind of mountain topography here in the Driftless – but I am very familiar with it from both the mountainous Bulgaria, where I went to college, and from my native Azerbaijan.

Look at that red rock!

Lots of adobe buildings – we are definitely in the Southwest now.

More adobe houses…

You know a hippie town when you see one. In this way it is a lot like Viroqua or Madison. Notice the store sign above – we must be in Colorado!

The Garden of the Gods – an area of red-rock formations, reminiscent of Utah.

I took numerous photos of the park – that’s up next!