Dumping Grounds

Well, as promised, we got an early start and headed back to Garden of the Gods. While we didnâ??t actually see the sunrise, we still got plenty of dramatic lighting, and our fair share of extremely friendly tourists. One guy made us both a little uncomfortable by acting so much like he knew us, and another had pledged to live until the Red Sox beat the Cubs in the World Series. By my count, he has 1,278 years to live.

I can only hope that some of the later stops are as photogenic as this place was.

And with that, our time in Colorado Springs ended. Off to Royal Gorge we went. However, there was one quick surprise as we were leaving townâ?¦ several times already on the trip Alan and I had wondered where Cheyenne Mountain was. It was not on any of the maps we had. I donâ??t think itâ??s a secret, but I donâ??t think they go out of their way to publicize it, either. For those who do not know, Cheyenne Mountain is a military installation under a mountain. All sorts of stuff may go on under there. And it is also the fictional home of the â??Stargate SG-1â? television show. So, since I posted a Bigfoot picture yesterday specifically for my friend Jeff, today I post a picture of Cheyenne Mountain for the biggest SG-1 fans I know, Heidi, Michael, and Jonathan. It does not show well in the picture, but if you look closely, you can see a hint of the literally hundreds of antennae (antennas?) coming out of the top of the mountain.

The Royal Gorge is obviously a summer and weekend attraction, as everything around it was closed. All in all, however, this was not a bad thing. We didnâ??t want to eat, and having less people there was probably a plus. Concerning the pictures belowâ?¦ no matter how high that bridge looks, it was higher. No matter how windy it looks, it was windier, and no matter how tight you imagine my butt was clinched walking across that damn bridge, it was tighter. Alan didnâ??t have much of a problem with it, and even came up with the idea of shooting pictures down through the bridge itself, between the cracks in the boards (OK, I did it too, but I felt like I was going to puke while doing it. Did I mention that it was windy? Does everyone know what suspension bridges do when itâ??s windy? Do the words â??Tacoma Narrowsâ? mean anything to anyone? (If not, Google it. Google contains the answers to all lifeâ??s questions) Walking back (alone, while Alan took the Skytram, which I refused to board due to a childhood trauma) the wind got so strong, you could actually see the waves of motion in the bridge approaching you. Quite nerve-wracking.

Now, it was time to head west. Up, up, up, and did I mention up. At the same time it got colder, and colder, and colder. Passing through Monarch Pass we saw our first snow (falling, not on the ground, weâ??d seen plenty of that) and our first runaway truck ramps. For those who are not familiar, a runaway truck ramp is a special exit ramp that immediately heads into a step uphill, coated in gravel, and with lots and lots of sand barrels at the end. Itâ??s meant to slow down a large truck whose brakes have failed. Of course, as I noticedâ?¦ there are sharp turns before some of the ramps, which an out of control truck doesnâ??t have a prayer of handling.

Monarch Pass also represented the crossing of the Continental Divide, even though there was not even a sign to commemorate this fact.

Coming back down from the biggest of the mountains, we hit Colorado ranching country. Lots of cows, very few people, and some gorgeous scenery. Due to lack of turnouts in appropriate places, and the fact that we were on a little two lane state highway, this portion of the trip is under-photographed.

Well, this entry has gotten extraordinarily long, so Iâ??ll sign off by saying we stopped in Gunnison, itâ??s hunting season, and there are hundreds of very dirty men with guns walking around. And the hotel room did not have a funky smell.

Comments RSS