After a nice weekend at Uncle Ron & Aunt Ok's near Aspen, we headed over the mountain and across the Continental Divide via Independence Pass. One problem: the Ride the Rockies bicycle ride was taking the same route at the same time. That's about 3,000 cyclists "sharing" a winding, two-lane road over the mountain. When we reached the snow-covered Continental Divide at the top, we couldn't even pull over to get a picture, because there were bicycles strewn everywhere and cyclists taking water breaks all over the place. But it was still a beautiful drive.
Water break site for the bicyclists
A little ghost town along the road
A couple of hikers making their way over the pass
View down the other side of Independence Pass
If you squint real hard, you can see all the cyclists down below.
Beautiful mountain lake
On the other side of the mountain, the land flattened out for a while.
Our first stop in Colorado Springs was to Focus on the Family - that's the organization that produces one of Essie & Chloe's favorite things - the Adventures in Odyssey radio program.
Essie & Chloe listen to Odyssey at every opportunity. Like, send them to their room to put their shoes on, and they turn on Odyssey. They listen to it every night as they go to bed, while they do their chores, while they do their homework...seriously, all the time.
Chloe & Aslan
Essie
Essie ready to go through the wardrobe. (Focus also made radio theater productions of the Chronicles of Narnia.)
Essie in Narnia
Next stop: Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods is a great free park where the main trail through the biggest landmarks is smooth, level, and handicapped-accessible.
As our walk went on, the skies began to look a bit ominous.
Pigeons
Essie & Chloe at Balanced Rock
Balanced Rock
Essie
We even got caught in a bit of a hailstorm
But we were rewarded with a rainbow over the park.
"The Siamese Twins" rock formation
Essie
Superhero poses
On the way out of town early the next morning, we finally got a view of Pike's Peak, which was covered by clouds the entire afternoon and evening the day before.
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