Yuki (and Brody's) RV Adventures: Colorado Springs

Greetings from Colorado Springs,

We are staying at the Garden of the Gods RV Resort. I couldn't figure out why it was named this, until I saw the huge dog park and thought that looks like my kind of garden

and maybe this was the God.

Well, needless to say I was wrong. Dad and mom took us to the Garden of the Gods park. We took a small hike up to one of the sights

but, it was Sunday and the park was so crowded we couldn't find another place to park so we just drove around trying to appreciate the beauty of the park. These magnificent, eroded red-sandstone formations

from gnarled jutting spires to

to abstract monoliths, sculpted more than 300 million years ago.

Sadly, these few pictures do not the park justice, it was just spectacular.

One day we got to go with mom and dad to Cripple Creek, a historic gambling and mining town

nestled in a beautiful valley on the back side of Pike's Peak (more on that later)

Cripple Creek's biggest gold rush started on October 20, 1890. Prospectors by the thousands came, their slogan, "Pike's Peak or Bust". By 1910, more than $18 million worth of gold had been mined. Mom was glad we were with her on this trip so dad wouldn't get any ideas of taking a trip down the gold mine.

Today Cripple Creek is still an active gold mining town and the charming main street is lined with gambling casinos housed in quaint Victorian buildings.

One of my favorite part of the day was watching mom feed the donkeys. They were off in a field, but as soon as they saw mom they started walking up in a long line to get a treat.

Brody was really jealous, as he wanted a treat too! And the donkeys were sadly looking for more after the treats were gone.

After visiting Cripple Creek we drove to Victor, a smaller, quiet and historic mining town

and had our picnic lunch across the street from this mural before heading home

The next day, mom and dad went to Pike's Peak.

Brody and I thought we were going to get go, as you can drive your car to the summit (14,115 ft), but that morning when dad called, he found out that there was too much snow and the road was closed at 12,000 feet. So mom and dad were very lucky to get last minute tickets for the 10:40 trip to the top on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. It is the world's largest cog train and took 1 1/2 hours to get to the top, up the narrow tracks.

At the top it was 31 degrees, but sunny.

and the views were incredible, you could see five states!!

These views inspired Katherine Bates to write the song "America the Beautiful"

After 30 minutes on the top they headed back down

On the way down they saw the snowplows trying to clear the road for tomorrows visitors.

Colorado Springs is home to the U.S Air Force Academy, built in 1954 with a very modern design. We got there just before a big rainstorm, but still got to visit the famous chapel, featuring 17 spires that resemble airplane wings.

The interior stained glass spires would have been spectacular if the sun was shining.

We drove to Canon City to see if we could get a view of the Royal Gorge, whose canyon walls tower up to 1,200 feet high and were carved by the Arkansas River more than 3 million years ago. It is a private park, charging admission to walk across the highest suspension bridge in North America. The 1,052 ft high bridge sways in the wind and the river can clearly be seen gaps in the boards