Colorado Vacation - Day 1

I am frustrated in finding a slide show product that works with Blogger - so I will post pictures one day at a time.  We flew a very economical Southwest (bags fly free!) flight into Denver; we picked up our $100 for the week rental car (yes, taxes included!).  Unfortunately, Enterprise had almost ZERO cars left in the lot, so we didn't get our Dodge Charger...but who can complain for $100.

Day 1:  After the flight in, we drove to Colorado Springs arriving around 9:30 pm.  Unfortunately, we both arrived with bad colds.  Getting up in the morning, we headed to Manitou Springs for the Incline!  Craziness!!  For exercise, the locals (and us crazy tourists) use this outdoor stair step.  2,740 steps total - 2000 vertical feet to the top (there is a false summit in this picture).  Around step 1,821, there is a "exit" point to the Barr Trail which runs adjacent (just not straight up and down).  With bad colds, the intermediate "exit" point was used.  So many locals were on this trail - it was fun talking to them.  They were impressed with us being from low-altitude Illinois.

In Manitou, you can take the Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak for a pretty penny.  We decided against it as it was a three-hour tour and we were expected to be at 14,000' on the last day of our trip (more to come on that later...).  We did stop at the station and went in he visitor center and saw a train being loaded up.  The Incline is within walking distance of the Cog railway station.

After the Incline and Cog Railway, we went to nearby Garden of the Gods.  A beautiful free park in Colorado Springs - a park for the people...and always will be!

We did a few hikes, and watch a handful of rock climbers...all very nice.  Below is a picture of snow-topped Pikes Peak in the distance.  Seeing the snow on the mountain made us nervous for our 14'er attempt later in the week.

We are on a quest to see all of the National Parks in the US; we also try to see as many of the National Monuments & Recreation Area as well (at some point, there will be a follow up on the significance of a Park, Monument, and Recreation Area...as it relates to Cuyahoga NP).

We did two shorter hikes at Florissant, and watch the video in the visitor center.  Not a "beautiful" park, but more informative/educational.  The environment use to be much different in this part of Colorado with Redwoods standing tall.  Several petrified stumps are found on the Petrified Forest Loop.  In the stump below, there are two embedded saw blades from early generations trying to cut the stone for resale.

We then drove on to Salida for the night.