2013/07/04 – Thursday – Vacation - Day 14 - 14,000+ & Garden of the Gods

We got moving early, we left the RV about 8:30. 

Our first stop was at the toll both for the road going to Pikes Peak.  We spend the required $50 for the car load and a JR Ranger booklet for Amanda.  I also started the audio tour that I had download that told you about the trip up the mountain.  We stopped at a few places going up then I noticed the clouds to develop, so off we go without any more stops.

We made it to the top of Pikes Peak about 11:30, we took several pictures and wondered around the area for a little bit before going in and getting a bad lunch.  The food was not good, if you plan to go pack your own lunch.  The place was packed with the people that took the cog up, but when they had to board and head back down, the place emptied out.

We stopped at several places on the way down to take more photos.  Almost half way down they have a break check area, the ranger uses a temperature gun to check people breaks temps. 

By the time we got down off the mountain, it was about 1:30 and now we were trying to find something else to do.  Our first item we looked at was the caves but that was swarmed with a lot of people, then the cliff dwellings wanted money before even getting into the area, so the next location was Garden of the Gods.

We drove the entire park and we also stopped at the trading post and the visitor center.  Amanda even was able to do the JR Ranger program which makes that her 52^nd program.

Dinner was at Black Bear Dinner.

Back at the RV Amanda discovered that she left her purse at the dinner so back out to retrieve it.

We then spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  The have a band on fireworks in the area so it was a quire evening.