Colorado Trip - Part Two - Friday

So we woke up on day two of our trip at 6am because we wanted to get out to Pike's Peak (our primary destination...for some nice hiking) before it was too late. I'd heard about "afternoon storms" and problems with getting caught on the mountain. And since I wasn't sure what the hiking would be like, I wanted to be more safe than sorry.

The hotel had a nice, free breakfast, and we took advantage. I assumed that we'd be hiking until a couple hours passed lunchtime so I tried to eat as much as possible. We also had some beef jerky, some trail mix, and I bought some almonds at a convenience store the night before. I figured that would be enough food. As I'd find out, Ashley's stomach was going to disagree.

So we drove up to Pike's Peak in our little Camry, and I was surprised at my ability to drive on a mountain. I have a pretty decent fear of heights, and I'm also not a huge fan of being crushed by rocks in a landslide. But, throughout the drive, I didn't really disrupt the native Coloradans with my slow, non-mountainous driving. Which is a win for me.

So we drove through the clouds to Pike's Peak, but it was closed until 9am because of ice on the highway. So we drove back through the clouds to stop by Garden of the Gods for a little bit.

And, yes, I mean through the clouds. As we passed a point on the mountain, we drove above where the clouds were. At Garden of the Gods, it was cloudy and cold. Above the mountains, it was warm and clear. And it was really cool to be driving below clouds one minute, in fog the next, and see nothing but blue sky a second later. Its a bit trippy, to be honest.

Garden of the Gods was cool - there's not a whole lot to it, but there's just a whole lot of cool views (all of these enormous red rocks make you feel pretty small). And there was a nice snow that made all of the evergreen trees look great. We only spent about 30 minutes there, but it was definitely worth the trip.

About 9am, we went back over to Pike's Peak, and our first stop was this reservoir about five miles in. And it was freakin' awesome. Here is this water, as blue as I've ever seen, with this huge mountain in the background. My mom said it looked like Heaven. Ashley said it looked like a Coors can. I just thought it was amazing.

We hiked around there for a bit, going through the woods and finding our way back to the highway. It was very nice and peaceful to be out in nature, miles away from facebook statuses, fantasy football, and most of all, work. We also found a little stack of big sticks that resembled a teepee that was pretty awesome.

After that, we did a bit of driving on the mountain. We found another reservoir with just as many picturesque views before starting our climb up the mountain. We figured it would be a pretty big haul up the mountain on foot, and we decided to try and find a nice place to get out and do some more hiking. But as we continued up the mountain, passed the tree line, there wasn't really any place for that.

And by the time we got somewhere to get out, we realized something: on top of the mountain, it was very windy. And very cold.

After that, we didn't really consider much hiking. We did, however, take a few pictures on top of the mountain before we actually reached the summit. And when we did, the wind and cold picked up significantly. I could tell that Ashley wasn't thrilled by the cold, but I was trying to enjoy the moment...particularly since I had no idea when I'd ever be back to this place, where I could see the whole world below me. It was one of those times when you just stand there and realize...this world is just really cool.

On our way back down, I kept looking for places to stop and get out because I wanted to, you know, climb a bit. And everywhere that it seemed cool to climb had no place to stop, and the places to stop didn't have anywhere to climb. I ended up settling for a small place off the road where I was able to climb a bit - I'm sure it was frowned upon, but we were only out of the car for a minute.

After that, Ashley started talking about lunch. Now, if you don't know, Ashley is the kind of person who likes to have 5 small meals a day...as opposed to someone like me, who usually just has two...maybe three meals a day. And since he'd already eaten all of the trail mix and most of the beef jerky (and doesn't like almonds?!?!), I thought that was going to buy me enough time to take one final hike around the reservoir.

I could tell that Ashley wasn't thrilled with this idea, but he went along with me. Like I said, it was mesmerized by this place, and I had to spent another hour or so there. As we walked, we took some water breaks, but I could tell that he just wasn't feeling it. We got passed the place that I considered "the point of no return", however, and I knew that we'd have to finish the hike instead of just turning around. Eventually, however, it seemed like there wasn't really a way to go all the way around, and we had to go back anyway.

And Ashley might disagree, but this was my favorite part of the trip. I wish that I'd brought a notepad and could do some writing out there because it was just so peaceful. It was the place where "America the Beautiful" was written, and you can see why. Everything mentioned in that song is present, and it just screams at you the entire time.

My only regret was that we didn't see any wildlife. At all. At Garden of the Gods, we saw a couple of rabbits, but we saw nothing at Pike's Peak. And Ashley will tell you...I looked.

And it made me a little sad because the park ranger said that someone had seen a bear in the area about a week before. And while I don't really want to get mauled by a bear, I think it'd be cool to see one. Hoping, of course, that they're actually more scared of us than we are of them.

So we made it back, both of us pretty tired, and we drove into town to get Ashley some lunch. We ended up making it to Hooters for some chicken, and a couple hours later, we got Ashley a steak at Outback.

It was a long day with a lot of walking, but it was extremely rewarding. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and I'm definitely making sure that I make a return trip at some point. It was just so very awesome.

Tired, we went to bed relatively early to get ready for game day. It was the excuse for the trip, and we thought we were ready. But after a beautiful day on Friday, Mother Nature was ready to show us her teeth.

(Fun Fact - On my bag of almonds, there was a warning label. It said (totally honest, here) "Warning: Contains Almonds." It was a bag of almonds, and they had to put on the bag that it contained almonds. Seriously).

Next on Colorado Trip - Part Three - Game Day