Colorado Springs Colorado

Her View

Colorado Springs - Caywood's perspective

Colorado Springs: a city built by the hiking gods. Seriously everywhere you turn in this city and its surrounding ones, you have some of the best hiking paths and mountains to choose from. Luckily I have a friend Raven who currently lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and baby girl, and she recommended we check out the Garden of the Gods National Park. I had never heard of this park before, but it was even more brilliant than its name suggests. Not realizing how truly big this park was, we stopped at the second parking area to do some hiking near two large mountain boulders. We went off the beaten path to climb as high as we could, and ate lunch with a magnificent view from 6800 feet up.

After Garden of the Gods our next recommendation was to check out the cute small town of Manitou Springs. Home to Pike’s Peak, we decided not to take the cogsrail up there since it was $36 per person. We walked around the quaint town and checked out all of the local shops, the eight natural springs in this city, and the biggest outdoor arcade EVER. We spent the night with Raven and her family, shared a delicious meal and were given some great tips on our next few days of adventures. It was so great to catch up with my fellow barista, her husband, and their sweet 1-year old baby girl.

My advice from our experience:

Go to Garden of the Gods.

Spend a full day at Garden of the Gods.

His View

Colorado Springs - Feliks' perspective

Colorado Springs was our first stop in Colorado, and one that I was really excited about. We had good recommendations on things to do and places to go, and our first choice was Garden of the Gods. My expectations were really high because of the name, and I was not disappointed. At first glance the rock formations were mind-boggling,and I quickly understood its name. Very big, very clean national park with lots of people hiking and biking. And we even saw signs for people on horses.

We stayed on the designated path and walked to the first two giant towers that we saw. After a couple pictures and some selfies, we decided to break the rules and find our own path. We hiked up to almost the top of one of the rocks, where our car looked like a toy due to the height. We planned ahead this time and had our lunch packed to enjoy in this magical spot. As we explored the top of this peak, we noticed we were not the only rule breakers, and left our mark along with so many others. The whole hike took about an hour and a half, and was by far one of the best hikes we’ve done so far. On our way out of the park we saw so many more amazing formations, and one that looked like only a god could have created it.

Not too far from Garden of the Gods was a small town of Manitou Springs. There was free parking, and a shuttle to take you downtown. We decided to enjoy a walk down Main Street. Totally local shops and restaurants, and one of the biggest street arcades I have ever seen. There were eight stations that produced natural carbonated spring water; this blew my mind, even though I only got to try two of them. How does nature carbonate water?

Overall, Colorado Springs was a nice little town. It definitely seemed low key. The view of the mountains was magnificent. Parking was easy and roads were pretty good.

Feliks, Caywood, Raven, Jordan, Jad	Feliks and baby Jordan
Baby Jordan and Caywood	Sweet baby Jordan
Big chair	Manitou Springs natural water
Manitou Springs cogsrail	View from Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods National Park	He totally loves me.
Lunch atop some mountains	Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods	Up 7000 feet high
Rock climbing	The view
Garden of the Gods	Rock climber
What a beautiful sight