This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Summer Break 2022, Part 3
Aug
10
2022
This is the third of a series. You can also read about the first part of our trip to Colorado here.
Day 3:
We had 2 main events planned for this day, which started early again. First up, hiking Garden of the Gods.
GOG : Garden of the Gods
The rental house was conveniently located just a few minutes from GoG, so we swung by there to see do some hiking. We opted for an early-ish start, so that we would be able to get a parking spot.
We picked a spot based on the handy map we had. The first trail was the main paved trail, Central Garden Trail. Most of the views looked like this, and it stayed around the base so it was fairly flat.
But there was one section/shortcut between the large rock formations that reminded me of a Star Trek set from the 1960s.
That was the most populated section of the park, as there’s direct access from the visitor center to that trail.
We got back in the van and drove to the south end of the park and then we hiked the Siamese Twins trail. We saw only a few other people. This trail was not paved, and sometimes there wasn’t a trail, and there was a bit of elevation change, so it was a good excursion, as the boys could scramble over rocks and explore.
The elevation of the Siamese Twins rock formation allowed for some good views of the surrounding area.
As per tradition, Delta took a bit of a tumble and scraped up his knee. The parking lot for the Siamese Twins trail is not far from the GoG Trading Post (AKA gift shop), which was friendly enough to give us a couple bandages from their first aid kit. The scrape wasn’t too deep, but it was wide. We rinsed it off with a bit of bottled water and put the bandage on and he was okay.
Our last stop on the GoG morning hiking tour was Balanced Rock, also just around the corner from the Trading Post.
This was a very popular stop, lots of people around. Not much hiking, basically walk 50 yards to the balanced rock formation, get some pictures, then walk back to your parking spot.
Maybe we could have found some more hiking at Balanced Rock, but it was lunch time so people were looking to go home not hike more.
So we made the short drive home, had lunch there, relaxed for a bit, then it was on to our afternoon activity.
GEC : Glen Eyrie Castle
The GEC was even closer to our house than GoG was. I had bought tickets about 2 weeks ahead of time for a castle tour, as they’re only at certain times and possibly sell out. So we showed up just before 2:00 for our tour.
The tour was supposed to last 90 minutes, but it was more like 2 hours. The tour was not what I was expecting. I have been on tours of old houses, mansions, estates, plantations, and castles before. This was not like any of those.
It starts out in the carriage house with a video that has probably been around since the VHS days. That gives a bit of history of the guy who had the castle built – Mr. Palmer. Then the tour guide comes into the room (we were 6 of about 24 people on the tour, and the small room was full) and explained a bunch more about Palmer, plus a little bit about the Navigators organization.
The we walked outside, up the road from the carriage house to the castle itself, getting more of a history of the grounds and of Palmer.
We stopped in the foyer of the castle, getting some more history of the castle and of Palmer. The we went upstairs to a hallway. We couldn’t go into the rooms because it is a functioning hotel and all the rooms were booked.
Then we went into another hallway that led to the great room or ballroom or whatever it was called. We got some more history lessons, then we went outside to the porch/fountain area and the tour was over. I’d say it was 2/3 about Palmer and 1/3 about the building.
Mr. Palmer like advances in technology, and the castle had the first of a lot of things – first telephone system west of the Mississippi, first ice cream machine west of the Mississippi, early adopter of electricity, etc. He did have an interesting life, but if you do go on the tour just be aware that it is not 90 minutes of touring a castle.
Then we went back to our house, had dinner, and relaxed for the evening.
Then it was evening, then morning the next day.
To Be Continued…
Now Solomon built his own house over the course of thirteen years, and he finished all of his house.
1 Kings 7:1
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:13 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
