Despite the rain over the mountains, we decided to leave our fun at Focus on the Family and head for Garden of the Gods. This beautiful rocky wonder is nestled between Colorado Springs and Maintou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. It was late afternoon and we could at least enjoy the views from the Visitor Center museum and gift shop. Besides, coming from Texas, we were used to rain! And since Garden of the Gods was free, it was a great bargain for a short afternoon!

Shortly after we arrived, the sun came out! After shopping and looking around the museum, we drove to the central part of the park. Hiking and biking trails abound, but this is the easiest path. We usually spend an entire day here to see all of the unusual rock formations. They have many interesting ones, like the Scotsman, Kissing Camels, Balanced Rock, Weeping Indian, Siamese Twins and others. There’s a really cool one where you look through a window of rock formations to view Pikes Peak. I have great photos of them from previous trips, but alas, no scanner. Since we had limited time in Colorado Springs, and we had been here before, we merely took a light hike before dinner. If we were fortunate, we might get to see some deer… or…a bear? They’ve been known to be in the park.

Here is a close up of the Kissing Camels I took from the Visitor Center in the rain.

Here is the beginning of our walk/hike. We are at North Gateway Rock. Look w-a-y up and you’ll see the Kissing Camels. Some photographers wait for a certain time of the year to get a shot of a full moon through the opening.

Here is a scrub jay.

Hmmmmm, what do I see here? Shhhhh, let's be quiet...

Could that be a bunny rabbit?

This sweet bunny liked having his picture taken!

He sat there for at least 10 minutes while we all stood there taking pictures of him.  Reluctantly, we tore ourselves away from the photogenic bunny to see Cathedral Rock...

For more pictures of the garden, go to

 http://www.rockymountainreflections.com/gardenofthegodsphotos.html

Finally we were getting hungry. We usually camp in Colorado Springs so to save my poor back and knees and dh’s driving fatigue, we were saving the camping for the next stop in the adventure. So I did some research on unique restaurants and found Guiseppes…an old Victorian railroad station.

The interior was l-o-n-g. The waiter took us to the other end. It was beautifully decorated with train artifacts. Being next to the train track, ds wondered if any of the trains on the track were active. It wasn’t long before we knew the answer to that one! Several trains rolled by during the evening and some even parked alongside the restaurant. Impressively, the restaurant had excellent insulation so it was not a noisy experience. DS could hardly contain himself and had to run to the windows to check out every train.  The following link has pictures of the interior.  Scroll to the bottom and click "take a tour".

http://www.giuseppes-depot.com/default.htm

Here’s a shot of Pikes Peak from our hotel.

We were packed up and off to our next stop…Rocky Mountain National Park. We had our first trip there last year and was only able to get a cabin for 3 nights. This time I booked early and got a cabin for 6 nights. We couldn’t wait!  See you there!