The tourists attack!

Oh my geez..... WHAT a day for sightseeing!  We were VERY touristy today!  

We originally planned to do the Pike's Peak Cog Railway today, but when I called for reservations they were all booked up.  But that's okay, there happened to be loads of other sightseeing and shopping to do.  :)

We started at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings and Pueblo....  These cliff dwellings were built and used somewhere between 1100 AD and 1300 AD.

Not only could you walk across the front of these dwellings as shown along the fences, you could also go THRU the dwellings.  It was amazing.  The things the People could do with none of the tools that you and I know and love for everyday use.....  For example, the women used to chew the ground corn to turn the starches into sugar before making their bread.  We also discovered that they were a very short people.  Either that or they were pretty darned stooped since the dwellings all had very low ceilings.  It made me thankful that I live in this day and age.

Our next stop was the Garden of the Gods.  It is aptly named, imho.

This city park is free as has been in operationg since 1909.  It has 1350 acres.  It is believed that many of the the red sandstone rock formations are over 300 million years old!

My pics will never do it justice...... particularly how beautiful the red sand stone looked against the brilliant blue sky and the fluffy white clouds.  

We probably hiked a couple of miles around the park.  Although it is hard to call it hiking when the paths we were on are all paved.  :)  

This next one is a pic of Balancing Rock.  You can see that the road runs right alongside it.  Seems to me that one small earthquake would send it tumbling!  Altho, Max did notice that at the bottom there appears to be some concrete to stablize it.  Thank goodness!

And, because I get questions.....  yes, I do get my pic taken occassionally.  :)  This was about halfway through the hike so I was still smiling.  But I gotta tell ya that the last bit of the hike was all uphill to the parking lot.  Since this area is about 6000 feet above the sea level, I was hurting a bit by the end.  :)

After touring the park, we went to the Garden of the Gods Trading Post.  Wow!  This place puts every other gift shop I've ever seen to shame.  A couple of sweatshirts later, we were ready for lunch.  They actually have a cafe in the trading post and the food was really good.  The eating area is a beautiful garden with a stream running through it.  It was a wonderful place to take a break.

After a quick trip back to the campers, we were ready for another stop.  This time was the Miramount Castle.  The building itself is stunning.  It was built by a catholic priest in 1895.  It is a four story castle built right up against a mountain..... designed so that the back of each floor looks like it is ground level from the back.  I've got a beautiful postcard of the castle, but sadly didn't get a pic. 

I did manage to remember to get a pic of this stained glass window in the castle. As well as a look at the pretty fountain in the terraced gardens of the castle.

Sadly, the inside of the castle was a bit of a disappointment.  Most of the displays really had nothing to do with the castle itself.  Seems to me that they missed a real opportunity.

After all the sightseeing, we made the obligatory RVer stop at Walmart.  Ask any Rver..... a trip isn't complete without at least one trip to Walmart.  :)

Dinner tonite was a wonderful Mexican place about a block from our park.  The food was amazing!