Colorful Colorado

A stunning view of Pikes Peak from Garden of the Gods.

Nathan has been in Colorado since April and I've been dying to pay him a visit. When we found out that he was, in fact, getting a long holiday weekend, I bought a last minute plane ticket into Denver. It was a quick trip but absolutely worth it! I landed Friday evening and flew back to Little Rock Tuesday morning, leaving us with three full days of adventure. The highlights of our time together included the Coors Light Brewery, downtown Denver, Royal Gorge, Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, and the Air Force Academy- in that order!

Saturday morning we made our way over to Golden to pay the Coors Light Brewery a visit. There was a pretty long wait and we're not Coors Light fans but, hey, it's free and you get three free beers (about 2.5 cans worth). The tour is self-guided and fairly short if you skip through the talking portions on your headset. We've done small brewery tours before but this place was HUGE! The copper mash tuns were two stories tall!

Check out the size of our free beer! 

After the brewery tour we walked around Denver, the state's capitol. There was also a free music festival at the 16th Street Mall (a mile long shopping strip) for the holiday weekend, but we didn't spend much time there because the amount of people walking around was insane. It was shoulder-to-shoulder and I got hit by lady's bicycle pedal soooo... bye. We walked around Capitol Hill and had dinner downtown instead of wading through the crowd.

Royal Gorge included the most adventurous 45 seconds of our entire trip! How? Because we zip-lined across it, of course! Built in 1929, the Royal Gorge Bridge is the highest suspension bridge in America. It's 1,260 ft in length and 956 ft above the Arkansas River. The zip line cost a pretty penny and we waited in the line for two hours, but it was worth it! (Yes, my mother did nearly have a heart attack after seeing pictures.)

I know it looks tiny in the picture, folks, but that's a full-size suspension bridge with people on it! 

A shot of the bridge from the zip line ft. Nathan's knee.

After Royal Gorge we went back to Colorado Springs and visited Garden of the Gods. Not only is it gorgeous and not too strenuous, but it's FREE! It has walkways that take you to beautiful natural rock formations. 

On Memorial Day we took the cog train up to the tip of Pikes Peak. You can hike, bike, or drive to the top, but keep in mind there's a 30-40 degree temperature change and 30% less oxygen when you're 14,115 ft up! Despite being nice and warm in Manitou Springs, it was 31 degrees and snowing on Pikes Peak. The round trip takes about 3 hours with a 30 minute break at the summit. The views from the train and at the summit were breathtaking. 

Views from the cog train!

Before heading back to Denver we made a quick stop at the Air Force Academy. I've always wanted to see the Chapel! 

I purchased our GoPro just before my trip (and by "just before" I mean, like, an hour before I left for the airport) so we were pretty much fiddling with it and learning how to use it the whole weekend. With that being said, behold! Shaky clips from our trip! I hope you guys enjoy this little video of random footage that I put together. 

Thanks for keeping up with us! 

Next stop: Texas