Rockies Caravan - Part 1 - Colorado Springs - STR-2021-27

Monday, 16 August 

The caravan is operated by Great America Caravans, a.k.a. Passport America Caravans. This caravan trip is their Great Rocky Mountain Exploration with a Black Hills Twist (https://passportamericacaravans.com/caravans/black-hills-twist/). 38 days, 2,160 miles, and lots and lots of adventuring planned with 28 other RVs (27 clients, 2 staff) including our friends Darrell and Brenda from Riverside. The folks on the caravan are from all over. For example, our next door neighbor caravan mate is from Burlington, WV, which we used to drive through every weekend driving from Alexandria, VA to Deep Creek Lake. Another hails from Canton, GA. Another from Jasper, GA (30 minutes north of Canton) and another from Rome, GA (about an hour west of Canton).

Our caravan mates have a variety of rigs - Class A motorhomes, Class C, Class B (Sprinty), travel trailers, and fifth wheels.

The caravan officially kicked off at Garden of the Gods RV Resort in Colorado Springs with orientation and dinner. Ryan, our Wagonmaster, handed out our information packets and went over how the caravan was organized. This is the first caravan for the majority of folks - we feel like we are seasoned caravaners after our Canadian Maritime caravan two years ago.

Tuesday, 17 August

With the first caravan scheduled event at 9:45am, we enjoyed a brisk morning exercise walk through the park with Darrell and Brenda before loading on the charter bus at 9:45.

First stop of the day was the Manitou Cliff Dwellings (https://www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com) in Manitou Springs, all of about 5 minutes from the RV park.

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings and Museum are a look into the past, long ago when a people called Anasazi lived in these structures. They lived in this region from the time of Christ to around 1300 A.D. Only 4 to 5 feet tall, these short and dark-haired people had a life span of around 35 years.

Some dwelling locations had as many as 5,000 people with hundreds of rooms.

The Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum and Preserve was first opened to the public in 1907.

Over a three year period, from 1904 to 1907, these cliff dwellings were carefully relocated here in Cliff Canon in order to preserve them. They were preserved with a concrete mortar as opposed to an adobe mud mortar.

Our visit was greatly enhanced by the easy-to-access, free web site providing more detailed information at each of 15 labeled spots, including an audio narration.

The museum was located in a Pueblo that was actually lived in by Native Americans. The first six rooms of the Pueblo were built in 1898. It has been expanded three times since then. Until 1984 it was occupied by Native Americans.

Inside the Pueblo, there are dioramas depicting daily life, exhibits of tools, pottery, weapons, and informative videos offer a glimpse of the people who left a remarkable architectural legacy on mesa tops and in cliff walls like the one at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings.

Next was lunch at Rudy's BBQ in Colorado Springs. We reboarded the bus to Old Colorado City. Colorado City, now called old Colorado City, was established in August 1859 during the Pikes Peak gold rush. Originally conceived as a supply camp, the town served as an outpost for eager minors headed up to nearby Ute pass on their way to the gold fields. Our guide shared that many of the hopeful gold seekers did not last - they had been enticed to venture to the gold fields by reports that gold was easy to find and mine. In reality, it was a lot of work, especially as the early days were placer mining (a.k.a panning for gold). The major gold veins were not discovered until later.

We had about an hour to wander through the shops in Old Colorado City. One of the original buildings from the 1850s has been relocated to Bancroft Park.

Our guide had highly recommended visiting the Old Colorado City History Center Museum (occhs.org), a free "neighborhood" museum. The docent was very welcoming and shared that everything, save one item, came from Old Colorado City. She was quick to point out the one item and how it came to be in the museum. Having visited several museums focused on the local history, we found this one was probably the nicest. Artifacts did not look cluttered and were well presented. The most fascinating exhibit, to us, was the make-shift contraptions that people used to slide down the Pikes Peak cog railroad track to get home quicker. The record seems to be just over 10 minutes for the 8+ mile descent- which included having to lift the contraption over the railroad switches.

The bus took us on a driving tour of North Colorado Springs and downtown Colorado Springs before dropping us off at the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum (https://www.cspm.org). Housed in the beautifully restored 1903 El Paso County Courthouse, the museum had a number of exhibits showcasing the 150 years of Colorado Springs. The exhibits were well done, and we wished we had more than the hour allotted to visit. We only got to see part of the exhibits.

We then drove past the Broadmoor while our guide shared some of its rich history. Our final stop of the day was Garden of the Gods. As we had visited there last week, we used this second visit to look more closely at the exhibits at the Visitor Center while our caravan mates viewed the movie.

One sign we missed last week was the one stating Katherine Lee Bates wrote the lyrics for "America the Beautiful" inspired by the view from Pikes Peak summit.

We walked the Central Garden Loop with Darrell and Brenda, and marveled at how the rocks looked different in the afternoon light compared to the morning light of our visit last week.

Lesson:  you can enjoy a revisit to someplace you recently visited - the light is different, the company is different, and you notice things you may have missed the first time.  And you can lend assistance to first-timers.

Then back to the campground for dinner on our own and resting up for a full day tomorrow.

Wednesday, 18 August

An earlier start this morning as we loaded the charter bus at 8:30am for the short drive to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway station in Manitou Springs.

The Pikes Peak Cog Railway was first installed in 1891 by Simmons Beautyrest mattress inventor Zalmon Simmons, who found the experience of getting up the mountain on mule-back entirely uncivilized. This historic attraction climbs to 14,115 feet (the highest railway in the country) and was shuttered in 2017 following an infrastructure evaluation. At first, it wasn't clear whether its current owners would bring it back to life or permanently close the train. But with its unique legacy—the highest cog railway in the world, and views that inspired the song "America The Beautiful"—the decision to invest in its renovation and modernization was a no-brainer. So in May 2021, after $100 million and three years, The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway is back in operation.

We boarded the train just after 9am for a scheduled 9:20 departure. The train climbs 7,000 feet in 8.9 miles of track, at an average speed of about 9 mph, with some grades as steep as 25%.

We lucked out as there was a little less smoke and haze than yesterday and certainly less than last week. Still too hazy to get the distant views one would expect from being at 14,112 feet elevation that inspired the poem that became "America the Beautiful".

Our conductor was quite the comedian. At one point, she announced a waterfall coming into view on the left side of the train saying that the Minihaha waterfall was higher than Niagara Falls. Once it came into view and we saw it was all of about an 8 foot drop. At an elevation of 8,300 feet, it was approximately 8,000 feet higher than Niagara Falls. 😉

Upon disembarking, we saw that there weren't many people by the summit sign, so while most people on the train headed for the restrooms or cafeteria, we headed for the sign. The higher altitude kept our enthusiasm for rushing over to the sign in check.

We then headed for the Visitor Center which was also just rebuilt. Most of it was open, however, there was a lot of construction still underway in the building and at the peak. The views from the top were okay.

Our time at the top was limited to less than 40 minutes from arrival to train departure. We were told later the limited time was to minimize altitude sickness. While we think that may be a consideration, we think it had more to do with the number of trains, the limited places on the railway for trains to pass (one going up, one going down), and the number of people they could take up the mountain each day.

We decided to try the famous Pikes Peak donuts - $6 for two small donuts. A major letdown. The donuts were not that good and certainly not worth the $6. But as we keep saying, "Always buy the ticket, always take the chance, always make the memory". Memory made.

Our Riverside friend Darrell has driven up to Pikes Peak twice - once in a car, once on a motorcycle. He said that riding the cog railway today was the best way to go up to the peak - more relaxing, and got to see more.

On the way down, our comedian conductor crack another joke, then warned us, the rest of her jokes were all downhill. 😉

When we arrived back in Manitou Springs, the bus took us to the historic district - all of about a mile away - and dropped us off to see the city and get lunch.

Manitou Springs was founded for its natural mineral springs (https://manitousprings.org/history/). The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers, particularly in the summer, with many one-story small shops, restaurants, and pubs, as well as a creekside city park with a children's playground made from unusual materials. Among other services, shops sell clothing, candy, souvenirs, and outdoor recreation. The main road through the center of town was one of the direct paths to the base of Pikes Peak. Barr Trail, which winds its way up Pikes Peak, is accessible from town.

Darrell and Brenda joined us for lunch at the Manitou Eatery which offered dining on an outside porch by the creek. Very pleasant. After lunch, we elected to wander the historic district without a deadline, so we made arrangements to skip the bus ride back to the campground. We enjoyed a leisurely wander through the shops and got some steps in as we walked the 1.3 miles back to the campground.