On our last day in Denver we attempted to head to Vail.  I have always had grand visions of Vail being the Cannes or the Paris of Colorado.  Since it hadn’t rained in recent memory here in California we thought it would be fun to visit the snow.  We managed to get about fifteen minutes outside of Denver before it started to snow pretty hard.  We knew we would never make it to Vail and back, in the snow, by the time we needed to catch our flight.  Alas, Vail will remain a mystery to me still.  We re-routed our drive south to the Garden of the Gods National Park near Colorado Springs.

The park was lovely.  It is reasonably small and reasonably free.  😉  One can start their visit at a wonderful little visitor’s center with a lovely gift shop and café.  The rain was coming down in buckets which made photography difficult.  But, my brothers were good sports stopping the car at every pullout and helping me keep my camera dry.  My socks were wet but my excitement was high.

Since it is still the off season there were very few tourists in the park which made it even better.  Better to take photos and view the sites.  better to make erratic movements to pull the vehicle over because your sister is pointing and yelling “Stop!”

Have you been to any great National Parks in Colorado?  What about Utah?  (I see a lot of resemblances here between the rock/geology in Utah and Colorado…)

For more about Garden of the Gods

One of the first views when entering the park on Juniper loop from the visitor’s center.

After a soggy walk I viewed some beautiful “fins”.

Balanced rock.  Interesting how our country allows for a road right through the middle of a natural wonder.

I wasn’t kidding about the rain.

To read about my other Rocky Mountain Adventures click here…