The title itself sounds so pathetic as Colorado is definitely not the place for a two-day visit. I had always dreamt of a solo trip to Colorado Springs after I read Just A Colorado Gal blog post which finally became possible nearly after a year.
My Greensboro (I think I own the place now 🙂 ) has a super tiny airport from where I took the flight to Chicago and then to Denver. Such a monster it was, the Chicago International Airport, it took me 20 minutes to reach the gate to my connecting flight. It was too crowded but beautiful and lively.
Chicago International Airport
I’m never awake on the flight. The altitude adds its own grace to the already congested economy class seating to make the air travel experience very tiring. As usual, I fell on the tray table and slept throughout the journey. After reaching the Denver International Airport, I almost froze in the Ground Transportation waiting for the car rental shuttle which took ages to arrive (Don’t you think even 30 minutes is nearly equal to a lifetime when waiting in the minus degree temperatures?). Finally reached the car rentals and rented a mid-size SUV; never cared for model and type of cars as long as they served my purpose and headed to my Airbnb host’s house. I wouldn’t say it was the easiest task, finding the correct house number on the street which didn’t want to be lit up in the dark winters.
I finally could find the house number and found the key (with a dragon keychain which I could say, tried to scare me) hidden in their secret mailbox (no exaggeration at all. It was actually hidden and I took a good 10 minutes to find that out.) I must say the host’s house was really worth the time I spent in reaching there. Interiors were designed beautifully and instantaneously made me feel at home. Though the flight wasn’t so tiring this time, I fell asleep soon again.
Getting up to the refreshing sunny morning, I then started to the Colorado Springs without any solid plan on visiting a set of places. The English language literally would fall short of the words if I try to describe the view with the rising sun and the amazingly bluish grey mountains. I had to control myself from stopping by the road as I couldn’t get hold of nature’s wonders while driving all by myself (I should be alive first to cherish the earth’s magic 🙂 though I took some calculated risks on the journey and took some videos while driving on the freeway). The best Bollywood music complemented the view as it always does.
I decided to visit Seven Falls first. To my excitement, the path was all covered with many streamlets with a frozen layer of ice beneath which ice cold water was flowing.
Isn’t it so unfair to see closed gates after imagining 7 waterfalls?
But when something goes wrong, we always have a concession gift. In my case, it was more than I asked for. I encountered the Mt. Cutler & Mt. Muscoco Trails. Ok, dear mountains, now you guys don’t have to feel sad as I called you a concession gift. You are equally awesome 🙂
The trail was a bit slippery and quite uphill. I don’t exactly know which trail I have taken.
A Lovely moment throughout the hike was watching a dad with his 2 kids and the pet climbing the mountain giving instructions to the little ones. I slowed down for a while just to capture their happy hike.
That little fear taught me many lessons that I would have never got to know otherwise, I would do anything for it. I must say the absolute mountain lover’s thirst has been quenched with this solo hike.
My next stop was Garden of the Gods which is a Natural Landmark with Imagine dramatic views, 300′ towering sandstone rock formations against a backdrop of snow-capped Pikes Peak and brilliant blue skies (Copied the description from their site as I’d say its just another scenic stop but nothing exciting in specific).
Now comes the most interesting part of the entire trip. I found a lot of advertising pamphlets at the Garden of the Gods museum describing different adventurous activities and rides (did I say I visited a museum as well? I did just to tick the checkbox).
I found Ziplining was the most suitable, affordable and new activity to try at that moment. I chose to Zipline with Pikes Peak Colo-Rad Guys. The funniest, friendliest (is there a word like this? I highly doubt it) and amazing group of 5 people I met there who trained us how to zip line safely along with their witty humour for which we were not charged. They had 5 inter-linked ziplines of which one was basic, 2 were lengthy, 1 was fastest of all. I had so much fun with rest of the visitors’ group which also contained a 12-year-old boy who jumped in with excitement to go first in every single zip line. I tried going upside down on the fastest zip line and I don’t want to describe my experience since I don’t have better words to describe how it feels to hang beteen the lovely mountains with just a rope tied to the waist. I wish U had taken a picture with those guys.
Manitou Springs – A small village with many gift shops and lots of people roaming across the streets.
The second day, I went to Roxborough state park colorado where I had walked through the rails with a friend I met there and also got a chance to boulder a little rock and had so much fun doing it after a really really long time.
Final destination was the Denver Botanical Gardens which had so many varieties of plants that grow all over the country. Not much to describe this place. Just another checkbox.
The trip came to an end and I returned to my Greensboro with an elated body and heart 🙂
