Up Pike's Peak and Down Again...A Colorado Springs TR About This Page:

[Meggera]

I had never been to Colorado before, and when I found out our church youth group was headed to Denver on a mission trip this summer, I knew I wanted to chaperone. This TR will be about our adventures in Colorado Springs.

Our trip was June 19 - 26. We flew out of Austin at 7 p.m., and arrived in Colorado Springs around 9:30, I think. It was a smooth flight. We rented four vans to take the youth all over the place, so we picked those up and headed to the hotel. It was a scary hotel. I had three girls in the room with me. (One was my DD.) We ended up with one of the better rooms. Ours smelled musty, and I refused to take my shoes and socks off. Other rooms had doors that didn't lock, some were dirty & grimy and one wreaked of cat pee. Ok. It was nasty! Our youth director tried to get us out of there, but they would not refund our money, blah, blah, blah. So, we had to stay the night. In the morning, we got up for the continental breakfast. What a joke! When I got in there, the only thing in the little cabinet was a donut with a bite out of it. I am not kidding!

Needless to say, our youth minister got us out of there and into another hotel. There was no comparison. It was GORGEOUS, and their breakfast was a hot buffet or you could order from the menu. Anyway, I digress.

On June 20, we went to Seven Falls. It is beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice.


The rock formation at the top is called George Washington's Profile. Can you see it? We saw this on the drive up to the Seven Falls parking lot. It was sprinkling a bit, hence the drops on the windshield.

Once we parked, I started taking pictures.




The little cabin on the right is the gift shop and a restaurant.


The ducks were so cute. There were also very large fish swimming in the water.


The rock is the granite that the sign talks about.

Up Next: I have to climb how many stairs straight up?

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start! Beautiful pictures!

[chezp]

What beautiful photos. Thank goodness you were able to get out of the scary hotel...

[christiejay]

Sorry you were stuck in that hotel for the first night, but it sounds like you ended up with a great replacement! The pictures are lovely. I went to Wyoming 3 times on mission trips when I was in my youth choir. We would stop in Colorado to do fun stuff on the way home, but not for very long (we were driving). Rafting in the Royal Gorge area, and one time we stayed at a dude ranch, I don't remember what city it was in. We always went to the supper and show at the Flying W Ranch in Colorado Springs (or just outside of it). Is that place still open? Looking forward to hearing about all of your adventures!

[Meggera]

Thanks for reading, guys!

I have to climb how many stairs straight up?

The smart adults...ahem...let the youth begin the ascent first. Here are the first of the youth beginning the climb.

I had to get a picture of them smiling down at us.


That's Victoria up there. Sorry she looks like a little speck.


Looking back from whence we came.


I took pictures of the first fall from the ground. It really was quite lovely.


Um....yeah....


Here goes...

Now, I have a serious fear of stairs. I always have. As a child, I wouldn't climb up or down stairs unless I was beside a wall, holding the handrail and holding my daddy's hand. I was scared they would collapse or I'd fall off of them. So, just looking at these stairs was an accomplishment. Once I took the first step, I never released the handrails, looked left or right or ahead. I only looked down as I made my way up each step. Needless to say, I don't have any pictures on the way up or down. But once I get to each destination, I have pictures.

I climbed up the first set of stairs, and the altitude really got to me. I couldn't catch my breath, and I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I've never experienced anything like it before. Once I got to the first platform, I was extremely dizzy, too. I had to rest there a few minutes. Thankfully, a few others (including some youth) were in the same boat. From the platform, I took some pictures.


Most of the youth had already climbed the second set of stairs and were going off exploring. You can barely make a few out crossing the little bridge up there.

I actually thought I had more pictures than that from the platform. I guess I was struggling too much, but I was determined to keep going. So, I began to climb the second set of stairs. My breathing was horrible, and I was so lightheaded, I was scared I was going to pass out. I had to stop every ten steps or so and try to catch my breath. I finally made it up the second set of stairs. I really thought I was going to faint, so I sat down. I didn't care that the bench was wet from the sprinkling rain. I didn't care how wet my jeans got. I HAD to sit down! The other adults finally made it up the stairs, too. Once we all felt a little better, we decided to head for the trails. I was ready for some flat walking. Plus, we knew that we could follow the trails to an elevator that would take us down so we didn't have to climb the stairs down.

More pictures...




And this picture shows how far we came. You see here just the second flight of stairs.

UP NEXT: Exploring the trails!

[christiejay]

Beautiful! At the end of our Gatlinburg trip we went to a waterfall that had about 160 steps, and that was not in an upper elevation. I can't imagine that many steps, that high up. There were a few times on our hiking that my heart was pounding that same way, though, and I definitely had to stop and rest much more than Jay would have liked. I was holding him back. Can't wait to see what the trails look like. And the best part is the elevator to come back down - yay!

[Lemap760]

Beautiful pictures.

[chezp]

Wonderful pictures, but how scary to be so out of breath - not nice. :

[Meggera]

We started down the trails. They weren't as flat as I had hoped they would be and were quite rocky in some places. You had to climb up and down different rocks at some points. Oh well. It was better than climbing those stairs! The scenery was beautiful as we walked, and there were pretty streams throughout.

I love how smooth the rock is from the running water.



We came upon a map of the trails that we studied to find the elevator down.

I think it is too small for you to see, but where we were, the elevation was 6800 feet. The highest point is at Inspiration Point, and it is 7200 feet. We continued to look over the map, and then it hit us. None of these trails lead us to an elevator. NONE! We were going to have to climb back down those stairs! Being that I was still very dizzy, I said I was not going to walk around up there any longer and was ready to tackle the stairs back down. The others agreed with me because they weren't feeling too hot either. So, we didn't do any more exploring up there (That's a shame, really. I just felt so bad.) and headed back to those wretched stairs.

As we made our way back to the stairs, I snapped some more pictures. In my dizziness though, I forgot to snap pictures of the names of the different falls. Sorry about that.

Notice the stairs carved in the rock that we had to take to get back to the two flights of stairs. The people on the stairs are part of my group headed back down, too.


This is looking down over the railing from the rock stairs.


Going down...the first flight. Notice that the stairs were wet, as was the railing which I gripped tightly with both hands curled up in my sweater so my hands wouldn't slip.


And, the second flight of stairs. I, of course, waited until those people came up first. I wasn't about to pass people on the stairs and have to let go of both railings. The teepee at the bottom was pretty cool. They had Indian presentations. We didn't get to see it though.

We finally all made it safely to the bottom. Now we wanted to see where the elevator led. There IS an elevator! Along the way....


The Evergreens were lovely.

We finally came to the Mountain Elevator.


We walked in, and it was like a cave. There were pictures lining the wall of the history of Seven Falls and the many famous people who have visited the falls. One stood out to me over all of the many Presidents and famous diplomats and actors...

Yep, Walt Disney and his family visited Seven Falls. How cool is that? You can find Disney almost anywhere.

We took the elevator up to the top where there was a gift shop and some beautiful views.

I love how this pretty little plant found a way to grow and bloom in rock.


A quick zoom to the other side...the scary stairs that I conquered!

We went down the elevator since the rest of our group was making their way down the stairs. There were chipmunks all over the place. They were the cutest little things.

This little fellow was eating something. He didn't seem frightened of us at all. He's probably used to a lot of people being around.

We were all getting hungry and had packed stuff to have a picnic there. So, we gathered around and made our sandwiches, grabbed some chips, cookies and drinks and sat around in the parking lot to eat. The chipmunks must have smelled our food and some gathered around wanting some. They really enjoyed potato chips.
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After lunch, we loaded up in the vans and made our way out of Seven Falls. I took pictures along the way.

Little wagons like this were all over the place. I thought they were cute.


The rock formation at the top right is known as the Mouse. Do you see the mouse?

UP NEXT: Garden of the Gods

[christiejay]

Okay, should I admit how long I looked at that guidemap for the elevator before realizing you told us below the picture that it wasn't there?!? I'm sorry you didn't feel up to exploring the rest of the trails, but you probably made the right choice by going back down. Yay to you for conquering those stairs! You can really tell from the opposite side how steep they were. That is a beautiful area, now I want to head back out west! That chipmunk eating your chips is so cute. How cool that Walt Disney visited there, too.

[chezp]

Well, at least you found the elevator in the end! What great views you got - and boy, those stairs did look scary!

[Meggera]

After we left Seven Falls, we headed to the Garden of the Gods. The downside of being with a group and in four vehicles was that I didn't get to drive where I wanted and stop and see things I would ordinarily stop to see. So, I know that Colorado Springs will have to be on my list of places to visit again so I can see and do the things that I really want to do. I wanted to explore the Garden of the Gods a lot more than we did, and I probably wouldn't have scheduled two strenuous climbing events in the same day. However, our time was limited to today and tomorrow and that's it. So, I'm glad we did Seven Falls and GotG even if in one day.


The red rock was so beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice.

The youth wanted to do some climbing.

Victoria is the second from the right.


This is another shot of where they climbed.


Two of our guys found their way up this big rock. No one else climbed up there.

I loved to see the flowering cacti. The blooms were so pretty. And there was a heap of yucca that were blooming, too.



Our group split up, and I wanted to walk some trails so I took several girls with me, and we started walking. I would have liked to have been able to do a lot more exploring in this garden. It is beautiful and there is a lot to see. "Next time."


Victoria posing.


On our way down a trail, we came across this beautiful bird. I haven't a clue what kind it is, but it really is stunning.


I love this view with the mountains in the background.


We rounded a bend and saw this plaque set in the rock.

It was beginning to drizzle again, and we were supposed to meet at the vans at a certain time. So, we made our way back to the vehicles, met up with the rest of our group, and headed out of the gardens. There was so much more to see! I tried to take pictures as we drove out. I will definitely come back here one day.


The rock on the right would have been a neat place to stop. It is called the "Balancing Rock" (I think.). It looks like it is balancing there on top of another rock. There were a ton of people there for pictures.

UP NEXT: Dinner and a Show

[chezp]

What a stunningly beautiful place - thanks for all the great photos.

[christiejay]

Beautiful pictures! I remember wanting to stop there when I went with my youth group. But alas they had the itinerary already set, and there was no extra time. Some day I'll get back.

[Meggera]

Thanks for reading! It really is beautiful if you ever get the chance to visit.

Dinner and a Show...

We went back to our "new" hotel, the Crowne Plaza, to freshen up before dinner.

These were the comfiest beds!

We had reservations at the Iron Springs Melodrama Dinner Theatre. They don't seem to have a website of their own, but this is what I found. Iron Springs Melodrama Dinner Theater You can read a little about it and check out the prices.

Indoors was quaint. We sat together at a couple of long tables. There were animal heads all around us.


The food was served family style, and it was all you could eat.


There was oven-fried chicken, pineapple coleslaw (which was to die for, and I don't normally like coleslaw), green beans, potato salad, biscuits and something for dessert. I can't remember what. Maybe it was strawberry shortcake or something like that. Anyway, the food was your normal food. Nothing to write home about EXCEPT for that pineapple coleslaw. I would go back just for that. It was that good.

After dinner, we went to the theatre where your seats are reserved. It was a packed house. We were there with our youth group, and our seats were in the first three rows. The rest of the theatre was packed out with a huge group of elderly people. They were so cute. A lot of them were wearing the same shirts. It really was cute.

Now, as an actress and having worked with professional directors and professionally myself, I am used to seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly. I prefer the good, but sometimes you have to see the bad, too. If you like schtick, this is the dinner theatre for you. It is hokey and corny and has a lot of bad jokes. You are asked to boo the villain...

Doesn't he just look like a villain?

You get to cheer the hero and "awwww" for the heroine.


And, then you get to howl for the dog. She was actually a very good dog even if her singing left something to be desired. If she hadn't sung Snoopy's song, "Suppertime," from the Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown which I know like the back of my hand, perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad. But, she was very cute.


One of the funniest parts was when they stopped everything because they saw someone taking pictures. They all got together and posed and even took some pictures themselves. That was quite funny.

The guy on the left is the pianist, and he was fabulous! He could really tickle those ivories. He left the piano to pose for pictures. Very funny!

Finally, the show ended, or so I thought. I thought the whole thing was over and was rather relieved. I know. That's sad. The youth seemed to love it. When I realized we had another act to go, I maintained my composure but groaned inwardly.

ACT II: This was a good old-fashioned vaudeville act. I rather enjoyed it. I liked it a lot better than the first act. They did different song and dance numbers, and actually pulled some of our people into the numbers which we all got a big kick out of.


Yep, that's one of our young men. After the show, they said they had scoped him out from the beginning to use in this number. Luckily, Tyler is the kind of guy who'll go along with anything. He let them dress him up as they proceeded to sing to their new "Sugar Daddy." It was hilarious. They danced with him and would simultaneously bump his hips with theirs and practically knock him over. It was so funny.

Our night at the dinner theatre ended better than it started. The youth LOVED it and had a ball. That's what counts. Would I go back? I'd go for the pineapple coleslaw and the second act....maybe.

UP NEXT: We have to evacuate the hotel?