Hiking in Place: Colorado Springs

Bert Kreischer was the cause of our latest adventure.  I can't say that he's "at fault" because that has a negative connotation.  Some years back when Bert's Travel Channel show "Bert the Conqueror" showed this clip:

I promised Mila that during one of our excursions out of San Angelo, we'd make our way to Colorado and scream in a canyon.

mission accomplished

Our time in Texas seems to be winding down and I hear that Colorado has this thing called winter, so that closes our window even more.  We decided to take advantage of the 4 day weekend over Labor Day to make the 700 mile trip up to Colorado Springs.
It wasn't an easy choice, however.  There were a few big events going on that same weekend around the country.  My step brother Eric and his awesome wife Alyssa got married over in North Carolina.  Most, if not all, of my aunts and uncles (other side of the family) got together up in Wisconsin for a family reunion/final goodbye to Grandma Sam.  Heck, in the spirit of this blog, a few of my friends did a trail race down in San Antonio.  We had an amazing time but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that I feel a twinge of guilt for not making two of those other events.
James came with us as a last minute modification of plans.  Luckily, the hotel had a pullout couch so we didn't have to change any reservations.

He was really excited for this trip

San Angelo is in western central Texas, basically in the "north-south" center of the state.  It took us 7 HOURS OF DRIVING (not counting coffee, brunch, bathroom, and gas breaks) to get into New Mexico in the very northwestern corner of Texas.  We stopped at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo for 15 minutes or so too.

"Que pongo?"

typical

I'm typical too

We met my cousins James, David, and David's wife Emily for dinner and then settled in for the night.

Funny story.  Sometime in July, I went to the Cave of the Winds reservations site for our Terror Dactyl ride.  Found out that they had a 20% military discount.  "made reservations for noon"  Yet... I didn't.  Apparently I had gotten to the payment page and just never finished.  Luckily, they had a few slots open.  So, on Saturday morning, we finally fulfilled a bucket list item that we'd cooked up three years prior.

James did too.  To balance the ride, an employee jumped on with him.

they ARE in this picture, I promise

We stopped to get some pics around the mountain before grabbing lunch then the zoo.  At the zoo, we met up with a former co-worker Justin and his family, as well as the Eickhoffs again.

we were forced to take this picture

da bears

judgey monkey judging the zoo patrons

Afterward, David and Emily invited us to their place for James Eickhoff's world famous wings and football.  Upon leaving, we headed over to the Garden of the Gods to try and find a stargazing spot.  It was closed but we did see... something.  They had a spot light focused on something black way high up on the rocks.  Not sure if it was a bear or someone had hiked up and placed a tent.

Both Justin and David had insisted that we do "the incline" in Manitou Springs. It's about a mile up with an average 45 degree incline.  Just my type of thing.  We got there around 8:30 am and the entire town was full!  There were no parking spots within a mile of the trail!  Since we had an afternoon hike already planned, we decided to go to Garden of the Gods first and then we could come back in the afternoon if we were up to it.
The Garden of the Gods includes red rock formations that jut high into the sky.  Apparently, the surrounding area is populated by big horn sheep, bears, and rattlesnakes.  We didn't see any cool animals, but we did get in a good hike.  After looking at the park maps in the visitors center, we decided that we "must" see balanced rock.  Of course, it was at the exact opposite side of the park. So, we plotted a 6-7 mile course in order to see many of the geological highlights of the park.  I promise, I double checked with Mila and James that they would want to go that far.  It was Colorado hot (low 90s) but didn't feel so bad compared to the 105 we'd gotten used to here in San Angelo.

The hike was awesome.  There were plenty of other people on the trail and we had brought 3 liters of water and a bunch of Kind bars with us.

We got to balanced rock after a 3.7 miles and a couple of hours.  Mila had started to get worn down as we were getting close, so we took some extra time to rest.  and take pictures of course.

as with all true "reality vs expectation" memes, the place was super crowded.
We had 3 miles to get back and it was getting pretty warm out.  By the end, I'd rolled my ankle (took 4 days to recover) and Mila was doing a death march.  I was still hoping to get over to the incline but was outvoted 2-1.

More pics from the hike:

Instead, we went to a Wild West Castle, Glen Eyrie and got lunch in their bookstore.

We followed that up with a drive up Pike's Peak.  At just over 14,000 feet, it's the highest I've ever been.  Mila was terrified on the drive up, but we were fine.

I wanted to get closer to the edge

Mila did not

We were pretty wiped after all that, so we walked around downtown a bit before getting dinner and going to the hotel for the night.  We had an early morning wakeup call if we hoped to rest a bit at home before work on Tuesday.
It's hard to figure out where to spend your vacation time and money.  It makes it even more difficult when you have immediate family members living in other countries and around the US.  It seems that no matter where you decide to go, you'll be missing out on someone or something and potentially letting important people down.  I know that I didn't let Mila down and that should be the most important, shouldn't it?