6/24/2018: Manitou Springs, Colorado to Hays, Kansas

Once we were all packed up and checked out of the hotel we drove to the Garden of the Gods, which is a park of fantastically-shaped red rock outcroppings in the shape of big fins and cliffs that jut out of the ground reaching for the sky.  Quite something.  We went in via the back entrance on the Manitou Springs side and got on Juniper Way, the main loop road.  We soon discovered that one of the consequences of such a magnificent natural attraction that is free to the public was that it was so packed with cars and people that getting any parking spot anywhere was impossible … all the parking pullouts were jammed, as were all the larger parking lots out in the garden.  The fact that it was a Sunday with a gazillion people in town for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb probably didn’t help any.  So we drove around the Juniper Way Loop a couple of times … I pulled in at one of the parking lots and Jim got out of the car to walk around a bit to get some photos while we weaved around the parking lot as if we were looking for a place, then picked him up on the way out.  A little farther along we parked in a “No Parking At Any Time” zone in the bike lane like everyone else was doing, and walked off the road 100 feet or so for some shots of climbers on the rock fins.  But my conscience soon got the best of me and I returned to the car to get out of there before the cops showed up to hand out masses of parking tickets.

Photo 5517.  Jammed parking lot at the Garden of the Gods

Photo 5525.  Climbers on red rock formations in the Garden of the Gods

The truth of the matter is that photography conditions were not very good so we called it good and found our way out of the park and Colorado Springs and headed for our day’s destination: Hays, Kansas.

Colorado Springs is definitely a place we would like to return to some day for a “destination visit” as there is so much to see: Garden of the Gods, the Seven Falls, the Air Force Academy, the drive to Pikes Peak, not to mention the idea of catching a concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater outside of Denver!  There is some serious eye candy around here.

Colorado Springs is at the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, so as soon as you travel east, you are on the prairie.  We traveled on US-24 to the NE to catch I-70 eastbound, and once out of the Colorado Springs area, it was surprising how fast the traffic and megalopolis turned into a land of small towns that time forgot, with gravel streets and run-down houses.

Along this stretch we started seeing a lot of windmills, and at one place along the highway where we stopped for a break they were building one of these monsters.

Photo 5552.  Constructing a windmill on the Colorado prairie.

It didn’t take long before we were across the Colorado-Kansas state line, and long out of sight of the Rockies.  We were fortunate to be traveling through this part of the country at a time of year when the fields and grasslands were still green and presented the more subtle beauty of the plains.

Photo 5575.  A family farm survives on the Kansas prairie.

Photo 5577.  Big skies of the Kansas prairie.

Next:  to Kansas City for a reunion of the Spangler cousins