Colorado - Day 18 - Garden of the Gods

Denver East/Strasburg KOA, Strasburg                                                   Friday, 18 September 2020

Before I left the campground this morning, I saw a Hairy Woodpecker when we were out for our 2nd walk.  Like junior woodpeckers - very cute.

I also had something interesting happen regarding birds.  When I was traipsing around on the road up to Grand Mesa 2 days ago, I thought I saw a Spruce Grouse so I looked it up in the bird book to see if it matched what I saw.  It did but the map in the bird book says they don't get any closer to here than eastern Oregon, so I don't know what I saw.  

But I noticed something else about that map in the bird book, which is that it showed a Spruce Grouse subspecies named isleibi in southeast Alaska.  My former husband, Pete Isleib, was a well-known self-taught ornithologist who lived in Alaska for decades.  It seemed almost certain that this subspecies was named for him (how many people do you know named Isleib, after all), and I wanted to know more.

An online search got me to an article in a 2005 issue of an Alaska Department of Fish and Game publication that mentioned this subspecies, so I wrote to the author to see if he knew where the name came from.  He passed the question on to Bob Armstrong, who wrote a good bird book called Guide to the Birds of Alaska.  I think I still have my copy of the 1st edition (1981), but it's now in its 6th edition and probably better than ever.  

Anyway, Bob wrote back saying (in essence) yes indeedy, that subspecies was in fact named for Pete, and sent a link to an article about it.   http://www.friendsofornithology.org/Newsletter-2017.pdf  Pete would have loved it.  Absolutely loved it.

You never know what you'll find in a bird book.  In this case, a big blast from the past for me.

today's route

On the road                                                                                              As I was driving through Cañon City, I saw a car with a Hawaii license plate.  I also passed the Royal Gorge Auto Care business where a sign said, "Coming Soon!  Pumpkin Spice Brake Pads!"  Can they possibly be real?

I turned off US 50 onto State Highway 115 and came to the small town of Penrose, where signs claim it as apple and gooseberry country.

Then another sign told me I was entering El Paso County, "Home of Pike's Peak - America's Mountain."  Suddenly the road unexpectedly hit a long downhill slope into a large canyon area of intensely red rock.  I wish I knew why these photos don't begin to show just how red all those rocks were.

A little further along the road I came to Rock Creek Canyon Road off to my left and assumed these rocks are part of Rock Creek Canyon.  On the other side of the road, I saw a water tower painted with "Best Hometown in the Army."  That's referring to nearby Fort Carson, which is one of the most requested postings in the Army, thanks to its location at Colorado Springs.

[I just tried to make one of those photos above move to the right, instead of staying in the center, and this wonderful new "interface" deleted the whole post.  Fortunately, I found it again, but why - oh, why - did they have to try to fix something that wasn't broken?]

I see on Google's map that I somehow bypassed Herkimer, The World's Largest Beetle.  That's what it says.

The road finally leveled out and curved around this mountain (below), that I'm pretty sure is Cheyenne Mountain.

Cheyenne Mountain, at 9,570', doesn't get the day in the sun its height should have given it, because of all the nearby much higher mountains (think Pike's Peak).  On the other hand, this mountain is where the underground NORAD station was built during the Cold War, and it still houses an extensive underground military complex.  And I also have to note the mountain's complex was the setting for the climax of the 1983 Matthew Broderick/Ally Sheedy movie War Games, which has long been one of my personal favorites.

From there it was on to the Garden of the Gods. 

Garden of the Gods

coming towards the park . . .

. . . and a little closer

I think the rocks in the foreground of the photo below are named, left to right, Sleeping Giant, Cathedral Spires, and South Gateway Rock.

That's Pike's Peak in the left rear.  If I'd known at the time that's what it was, I'd have raised my camera a little.  I only found out later when I wondered where it'd been and looked it up.  Take a look at this online photo I found when I searched "Pike's Peak and Garden of the Gods."

Almost the same angle, only with snow added.  But the internet assures me that's Pike's Peak that's wreathed in clouds in that photo.  It disappears in this longer view (below).  I think that shoulder that runs out of the left side of the photo belongs to Almagre Mountain, aka Mt. Baldy.  At 12,367' it should get recognition but, sitting right next to Pike's Peak (14,115') as it does, it's nearly ignored.

                    

                Those few prominent rocks were all I could see, but I'd expected something more like Colorado National Monument - you know, with canyons and things.  But in the visitor center I found this scale map that shows yes, these rocks are pretty much it.  

  

 

 

                  But they're enough, really.  These photos don't show how truly beautiful this place is.  

The following photos are a few of the many other pieces of information on various aspects of nature I found in and around the visitor center

They also had exhibits on various aspects of geology.

This compares the high points of other states, including
Texas and Mississippi, to Pike's Peak.

Pike's Peak, with the text enlarged below right.

The age of the rocks here,
with the text enlarged at right below.

Tectonic plates, with the text enlarged below.

Garden of the Gods has its very own dinosaur.

Then there was this exhibit showing that a rose by any other name might actually not smell as sweet.

A beer garden?  Really?

And, finally, there's this note about the health-giving properties of Colorado Springs.

The visitor center had a great deal more, but this is a sample.

I found Garden of the Gods to be a place of heart-breaking beauty.  

Colorado Springs

Speaking of health-giving properties of Colorado, I've noticed an awful lot of craft breweries and local wineries as I've traveled around the state.  That fact suggests legalized recreational marijuana is just one of many ways Coloradans conduct recreation.

I drove around Colorado Springs for a bit to get a feel for it.  It reminded me a little of Austin back in about the 1980s - just before the explosive growth that trashed the character that made it attractive in the first place.

El Paso County Courthouse

detail from the courthouse

Colorado Springs is home to a USA Olympic Center, Colorado College (established 1874), a greyhound race track, some beautiful old houses, many trees, and wide streets with medians full of flowers.  And this mural (below) in a miscellaneous parking lot in town.

I found it when I stopped at Downtown Fine Wines and Liquors to find some champagne for celebrating my birthday in a few days.  It turned out to be a store with an extensive stock of just about everything - even Teachers Scotch, for a change - but what was intriguing was its layout.  From the outside it looked like your basic rectangular building.  But inside it looked like an old house that had been converted into a store, with small rooms opening off from each other, each one housing a different type of alcoholic beverage.  A lucky find.

Back on the road

I picked up I-25 and drove north to Denver.  On the way I passed the US Air Force Academy, and the USAFA Historic District, though I didn't take the time to get off the highway to take a look.

The road climbed to Monument Hill, elevation 7,352', the dividing line between the east/west flowing Arkansas River (south) and Platte River (north).

From there I ran into miles and miles of highway construction with 2 narrow lanes each way, concrete barriers blocking off the shoulders and very heavy traffic.  By then I was getting really sleepy and that was absolutely not the right place to be sleepy in.  The traffic, most of them I'm sure used to navigating this maze, wanted to move at a high rate of speed that I was very uncomfortable with.  It was a mess and seemed to go on way way too long.

By the time we came to the town of Castle Rock a bit further along the road, we were all more than ready to stretch our legs.  I was so desperate for a break I just pulled into a little-used parking area for an industrial business and it wasn't until we were about to pull away that I actually looked at where I was.

That has to be Castle Rock.

From there we came to Denver, at 5,280' the Mile High City.  Online I'd found a Safeway right by the highway, where we stopped, and from there I'd mapped out a route along main streets of town.  

We went north on Colorado Blvd. (aka CO-2), then east on Colfax Ave. (aka US 287, aka I-70 Bus. Rt.) which runs directly into I-70 heading east.  It looked very straightforward on the map and took nearly an hour to accomplish.  I guess it's because of them being main streets and therefore very heavily used.  But it was still early afternoon and I didn't expect them to be clogged with traffic.  Which they were.  And there was road construction here and there with lanes blocked off, and the day had gotten very warm, and I was finding it much more tiring than educational.

But the worst problem was that Denver traffic lights aren't timed to assist Friday afternoon leaving-town traffic.  For blocks and blocks I'd get stuck at every single light, which is no way to move traffic along.  Beyond being tiring, I was finding it irritating, because it was so completely avoidable.  I'd have thought a city of nearly three quarters of a million people would have a better traffic system worked out than they've got.

But we finally made it through and out to the countryside.  Which turned out to be more farmland.  Many of the fields - huge fields - were solid yellow and I thought at first some kind of grain.  But when I was able to look more closely, I saw that the stalks were only about 5" tall, which didn't make sense if it was a crop still growing.  

And finally to Strasburg, where I'd made a reservation for 3 nights to give us a break from driving on mountain roads.

When I asked them what all that yellow was, they said it was what was left after the farmers had harvested their wheat crop but not yet plowed the stalks underground.  I'm sure they knew what they were talking about, but it looked more the yellow color I think of as straw than as wheat, which I think of as a kind of brown.  Whatever it is, they grow a whole bunch of it in this area.