Fall Break

Fall break for the kids means road trip! We took off Friday morning after kennel drop off and headed down to Colorado Springs. Only 1 1/2 hours away but by staying in a hotel Friday night we could see all the sights we wanted to in one trip.

We started with Garden of the Gods which is a park with all the really cool rock formations. It wasn't what I expected in that the main part of the park was paved. Nice thing is that it wasn't croweded and the kids were able to find lots of rocks to climb on.

Ben

Michael

Next up: Cave of the winds. Now, all caves are cool and the kids had a great time but these caves couldn't really compare to the Lewis and Clark Cavern we went to in Montana. These caves used to make noise as the wind traveled across the openings but in the interest in tourism they have rerouted the opening and they don't make noise anymore. The kids took some time to "Pan" for rocks which of course turned into daming up the "stream" with their seive boxes. At least we were the only ones there.....

Saturday morning we headed over to the base of Pike's Peak to ride the cog railway up to the top. I didn't know what to expect but I enjoyed the ride. It took about 1 1/2 hours up and only an hour down. Some of the grades were 25% which a normal train or car can't make. We saw some Big Horn sheep but not much else in the way of wildlife. It was a nice day down at the base but it was 30* up top and with the 30 mile an hour winds it was only 10*.

Rocks at the top: small as they freeze and break most nights

Cog rail cars at the top
Michael leaning into the wind at the top