Colorado Trip – Day 1

Colorado Springs – Garden of the Gods and  Manitao Cliff Dwellings

The long weekend of Labor Day always falls around my birthday and is an ideal getaway for travel enthusiast like myself and this year I rang my big day in Aspen with my husband dearest. We flew to Denver (typical big city) and from there we drove to our destinations. The first stop of the trip happened to the city of Colorado Springs, we stayed in a boutique hotel and it was one of the coziest accommodations I have ever checked myself into. Our window opened into mountain view, which we enjoyed every morning.

Our first stop in the city was the Garden of the Gods, the ancient sedimentary beds of deep-red, pink and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone was first called Red Rock Corral by the Europeans, many native Americans including Apache, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota, Pawnee, Shoshone, and Ute people find connections to this place. This private property of Charles Elliott Perkins, after his death was given to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909, with the provision that it would be a free public park. The beautiful rock formation stands tall and is one of the major attractions, with Steamboat Balanced Rock being quite popular.

Few minutes’ drive away is the Manitou Cliff Dwellings which are a privately-owned tourist attraction consisting of replica Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and was created as commercial venture to divert tourists from Southwest archaeological sites. The dwellings were a quick sneak peek into the tribe’s way of living then. That was our day whole day and we were tired and hungry, we came back to the city and enjoyed a hearty Mexican dinner in The Margarita at Pine Creek, beautiful place and we ordered ourselves Smoked Salmon Cakes and The Margarita House Salad and couple of their special margaritas. We drove back to our nest to call it a day.