We started this trip in Montrose Colorado after a long layover in Denver.
Day 1
First park of the trip is Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Black Canyon is not a well known park and maybe not even a park that deserves “park” status, but like all other parks in the country is it worthy of some attention and a visit.
I guess I should mention that when we arrived in Montrose and walked out of the airport it was beyond windy, you know that type of wind where you cannot stand up straight and the dust from the ground is kicked up into your eyes? Well it was like that, but it wasn’t crazy cold but just weird weather.
The forecast for this day was slated to be cold and rainy and while we had expected cold weather just because we were going to be at higher elevations, not sure we were prepared for 35F (1C), and snowy. First it was just a bit rainy and then it turned into a nice snow storm, so much so that when we got to the visitor’s center inside the park we could not see across the canyon. Now you might be expecting the Black Canyon to be like the Grand Canyon and be extremely wide but the Black Canyon is actually one of the steepest and narrowest canyons in the US.
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| View from Visitor's Center |
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| View of the Black Canyon |
We waited out the storm for a little while, wasted time chatting with rangers and then reading and re-reading the exhibits inside the visitor’s center. After a while a few of the people on the team were getting antsy and wanting to get on with the day. We packed it in after the weather let up a little and then made our way down the South Rim Canyon Road. The canyon road has a number of pullouts where you can take in views of the canyon, the Black Canyon is not really known for hikes down into the canyon as it is STUPID steep and there’s not really a lot going on in the canyon except for the river at the bottom. It is not like the Grand Canyon where there are entire biomes in different elevations above the river.
We made our way down the canyon rim road and at the end, we hiked out to Warner Point.
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| View from the lunch location |
After the hike we went back to Sunset Point to have lunch, with a view. Then we decided to drive our way down to the river on the steepest road in Colorado (which almost set our brakes on fire). We made a quick stop back at the visitor’s center to capture the images that evaded us this morning due to the snowstorm.
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| Riverside at the Gunnison |
In speaking with the park ranger during the morning snowstorm, they told us about another trail just down the road past a town named Cimarron. The trail was the Mesa Creek Trail which was located near the Morrow Point Dam. Nice simple river trail along a lower section of the Black Canyon.
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| Further up the Gunnison on Mesa Creek Trail |
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| Marrow Point Dam on the Gunnison |
Happy hour was at the Horsefly Brewery and the beer was meh, and dinner was at the Trattoria Di Sofia and worthy of a small town mention.
Day 2
Day 2 and it’s already moving day, since we saw most of what the Black Canyon had to offer we were getting on the move to our next destination of Mesa Verde. We packed up, ate the usual hotel breakfast and hit the road at 830am, and while Mesa Verde was only 3 hours we were going to venture down the Million Dollar Highway (MDH) as a more adventurous route to Mesa Verde.
The so-called Million Dollar Highway, which may or may not have cost a million dollars, is named for the mix of wild tales, high construction costs and ties to the mining industry that dominated the area when the road was being conceived.
The MDH starts in Ouray, Colorado and this gateway city has a few things to see and one of the most famous is the Box Cañon. It’s a tight canyon with a big waterfall that has a high flow rate, not great for pictures honestly but definitely a worthy visit if you find yourself in Ouray. The site has an elevated bridge over the water to the back of the canyon and then another stairway that goes above the canyon to where the water enters. From the top you get great views of Ouray and views of the Cascade Falls waterfall on the other side of town. The other waterfall is accessible on a hike but we did not have time for a visit.
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| Ouray from the Box Cañon |
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| Elevated walkway in Box Cañon |
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| Bottom of the Falls |
Leaving Ouray we continued down the MDH (going south), we had a quick stop at Bear Creek Falls, drove by Crystal Lake cause we definitely did not see it, stopped at an overlook of Red Mountain and the site of the former Yankee Girl Mine and lastly a stop at Molas Lake for some views of the mountains.
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| Red Mountain |
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| View on Million Dollar Highway |
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| Another view on Million Dollar Highway |
Drove past Silverton and continued on into Durango where we had lunch at Sage Fresh Eats, hippy food but very good. Back in the car to drive another 1.5hours into Mesa Verde to catch our ranger led tour of the Balcony House.
Mesa Verde is a national park, maybe one of the lesser known ones, though one of the oldest in the country (it was the 7th national park). It was selected for its collection of Pueblo Native cliff dwellings. These are not just little one bedroom houses, these are quite large and detailed, we were informed that they believe over 5000 people lived in the Mesa Verde community at one time.
Our tour was of the Balcony House which has two main sections, the first section you enter appears to have been maybe an entertaining space with a couple of rooms above and then the other section had two kivas (I’ll describe them as pits for fires where ceremonies could be held or cooking was done).
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| Entrance to the Balcony House |
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| Full view from the edge of Balcony House |
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| Kiva |
At 430pm we started our hike on the Petroglyph Trail, a great trail that goes down into a canyon and works along the wall before coming back up to the top of the canyon. We apparently walked right past the petroglyphs and had to hike back down into the canyon to view them. Regardless, the trail has awesome views of the surrounding area.
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| The 'hidden' petroglyphs |
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| View from the edge of the mesa |
Our hotel was in the park so we just had to drive 20 minutes to the hotel and luckily the restaurant is in the same area (and still open) so we unpacked, had dinner, and called it a night.
Day 3
We were still in Mesa Verde National Park and our first activity was at 9am, since Rebe had leftovers, I was on my own for breakfast so I got up and headed to the restaurant where we had dinner last night only to find out that they do not serve breakfast. Breakfast was being served at the “Terrace” down the road but only a quarter of a mile away. Rebe and I are riding with her sister and husband for this portion of the trip so I didn’t have a car and the weather was nice enough so I decided to hoof it down the road. I was able to get a nice omelet for breakfast before the others in the group joined me, they were kind enough to give me a ride back to the room before our first activity for the day.
The first activity for the day was a tour of the Cliff Palace, this is one of the larger cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde and it was truly spectacular from above and even more impressive when able to walk through the outer edge of it. The 45 minute tour was excellent and I would highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to visit Mesa Verde.
Side note: Cliff Palace is not really a palace but more of a larger town that could house numerous families.
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| Cliff Palace from above |
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| Cliff Palace |
After the tour we headed to the museum to take a tour but at the current time it seems a lot of the museum was under development and there was not much to really take in. It did house a few items that were recovered from the cliff dwellings and a movie that was good but overall maybe a little disappointing. They did have a small gift shop which allowed me to get my National Park Postcard. I've been collecting the postcards that are replicas of the posters that were published as a part of the WPA’s Federal Art Project to gain public awareness of the National Parks and Monuments. We left the museum and had lunch at a campground nearby.
In the area of the Cliff Palace there is another loop road which has a number of old cliff dwellings in addition to other types of housings that the ancient Puebloans created before they moved into the cliff dwellings.
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| Mesa top structure |
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| Square Tower House |
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| Two kivas |
This was a number of stops but after slogging through most of the exhibits we then decided we wanted to hike to the two highest points in the park. First was the hike from the Morefield campground up to Point Lookout Trail which was only 2.2 miles out and back and up 555 feet. Great hike that leaves you with views over the front of the park, you can’t really see over the areas that hold the cliff dwellings but still great views.
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| Point Lookout, the highest point in the park |
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| A cinnamon black bear |
The next trail we did was much shorter at .4, it was the Park Lookout Trail (or Fire Tower Trail) which gives you the same views as the Point Lookout but you get almost 360 degree views including the views over the main cuesta (mesa) of the park.
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| Park Lookout |
Instead of eating at the same place we did last night, with its limited menu we grabbed a ride with Rebe’s aunt and son (and g/f [hi Karin]) over into Cortez for a meal at the Main Street Brewery and Restaurant. Wouldn’t be a Matt and Rebe visit to town without a stop by Dairy Queen.
Then it was back to Mesa Verde for the night.
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| Milky Way over Mesa Verde |
Day 4
Breakfast was again at the Far View Terrace, but this time I didn’t have to walk but I caught a ride with everyone else. After breakfast we packed and headed to the Visitor’s Center, usually the Visitor’s Center is the first stop but on the day we arrived, we arrived too late to visit, and the Visitor’s Center is very far from the main attractions of the park so we never got around to it. The Visitor’s Center at Mesa Verde is one of if not the nicest center in the entire NPS. The building contains the expected exhibits but it also has dedicated areas to the housing and storage of artifacts found in the region.
We started our drive east towards our next destination which led us back through Durango, Colorado. We wanted to drive through the main downtown area just to have a look and after reaching the end of town we parked and noticed there was a train museum so of course we had to check it out. But this was not just a train museum but also an everything under the sun museum or collection. It ranged from train cars to model cars, to actual old cars, to taxidermied animals to coins to guns to old phones. You name it, they had it and it was all free to visit. After the museum we walked a bit down Main St. grabbed some chocolate and lunch and hit the road.
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| Durango Train Station |
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| Durango Silverton Train |
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| Museum |
It was still around 11am when we left Durango and we were an hour from Chimney Rock National Monument which we just happened to spot on the map along the way. It looked like a perfect place for lunch and some quick sightseeing. What I thought would just be a place to see another cool land formation ended up being another site where the native Puebloans had a “temple” which aligned with a moonrise which only occurs every 18.6 years. Something something moon cycle yadda yadda (Northern Major Lunar Standstill). We ate lunch first before doing two short hikes at the top of the mountain before continuing on to our final destination.
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| Building at the top of the mountain at Chimney Rock |
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| Chimney Rock and Companion Rock |
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| View from the top of the building |
Before reaching our final destination we stopped at Safeway for some groceries and then dinner at the Purple Pig Pub in Alamosa, Colorado. From there we pulled into our hotel at the Great Sand Dunes Lodge, just outside the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
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| Great Sand Dunes from our hotel |
Day 5
First full day in Great Sand Dunes National Park, we started with breakfast at the lodge where we were staying and then immediately hit the road to get into the park. The original plan was to do a morning hike that overlooks the dunes and then actually hit the dunes, but our audio tour guide suggested hitting the dunes before the midday sun got to cooking the sand (apparently during the summer the dune sands can get up to 150F (65C).
The parking lot for the dunes feels like it’s 3 football fields of flat sand away from the base of the dunes, it’s a grueling beach walk out there and then the slog begins up the dunes. We found a few decent looking hills to sled down (no sandboarding for us) and my heavy ass didn’t do so well down the hills as I kept digging in no matter how much I leaned back. My one good run was interrupted by that big bump which then buried the nose of my board and sent me tumbling.
The youngins plus Terry (who’s approaching 60) had the audacity to basically hike to the top of the dunes, a 750’ (230m) climb. I’m sure the views were epic but I just didn’t have it in me to make the hike and the sand was getting hot and my shoes and socks were all full of sand. Yeah, I got plenty of excuses.
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| First walk into the dunes |
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| Dunes |
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More Dunes
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After the dune adventure we finally hit up the Visitor’s Center to use the bathroom, take in the exhibits, get our knicknacks and refill on water. Lunch was made at the picnic area just around the corner from the Visitor’s Center, the usual PB&J/Ham/Turkey sandwich and chips. The crew was then debating which hike we were going to take and while we had already decided last night on the hike a debate ensued. We stuck to our original plan to do the Dunes Overlook Trail which climbs a ridge behind the dunes for a, you guessed it, overlook. As we were making our way down the trail we could see rain in the distance and the wind really picked up, so we headed back to our rooms to dust off some the sand and to let the weather pass.
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| View from the Dunes Overlook |
The weather passed so we all (minus the Goin's) met back up and took the short drive over to Zapata Falls, it was a short hike up a rocky path before the path opened into a tall slot canyon that was full of water. Well I guess it wasn’t full of water but it was a rocky creek bed that you had to traverse to get to the actual falls. The water was more than 6 inches deep water to the falls so you had to stand on a few choice rocks to see the falls without getting your socks wet.
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| Zapata Falls |
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| Canyon leading to Zapata Falls |
It was now dinner time so we hopped back into the car and ventured back into Alamosa for dinner at the San Luis Brewing Company, reviews looked subpar but the menu looked decent and I’m glad to say we were pleasantly surprised with dinner and the beer.
Day 6
With all our National Park adventuring complete it was time to head back to civilization, kinda. Most of the crew were heading back to Denver today to either fly home or prepare for flying home (by attending a concert?). But before we did we had to get one more picture at a national park entry sign.
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| The obligatory sign pic |
On the way back to Denver we stopped in Colorado Springs for two reasons, first we thought it would be cool to see the Olympic Training Center based in Colorado Springs and take a tour. Rebe and I were also going to pick up our rental car for our next few days in Colorado after the rest of the crew heads out. The tour was an hour long and explained to us who all uses the facility and what all the facility supports. Seems like swimming was probably the biggest sport that they support but volleyball, basketball, fencing, boxing, shooting and wrestling are among the others that are supported by the center. Track and field is supported elsewhere and while they can do gymnastics it seems that Florida and Texas are bigger support locations for the Olympic gymnasts.
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| Entry Building at the Olympics Training Center |
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| UT lifting at OTC |
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| The Olympic size pool at the OTC |
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| Wrestling Trainig Area |
Rebe and I grabbed our rental car and said our goodbyes and headed to lunch at Edelweiss German Restaurant and then checked into our hotel room in Colorado Springs. After a quick power nap we made our way over to the Garden of the Gods, it’s a parcel of land that was donated by a family under the condition that it would always be free to the public. We hiked part of the Palmer trail from the north end to the Siamese Twins and then headed back through the central area of the garden.
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| Garden of the Gods from the Palmer Loop |
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| Siamese Twins |
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| Another view of the central section of Garden of the Gods |
Since we had a large German lunch, we got a few Korean tacos to go from the 503W and then called it a night.
Day 7
Well after fighting to get Rebe up, we finally made it out the door with our turkey and cheese breakfast sandwich with the intent to visit Pikes Peak. Our reservation to enter was 9am-10am and we got to the gate, well I should say we got to the traffic for the gate at 945. Not sure if being a holiday weekend made it worse but it took us another 30 minutes of sitting in traffic before we actually got let into the Pikes Peak “toll road.” So glad that they honored our reservation cause I might have flipped out if they would have turned us around. The gate attendant told us to take our time getting to the top to allow others already at the top to come back down and of course to use a low gear when coming down the mountain.
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| Crystal Creek reservoir from gift shop |
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| Another Inn on the way to the top |
On the way up we stopped at a few pull outs and the Crystal Reservoir Visitor’s Center. The mountain is home to a couple of reservoirs that hold water for the Colorado Springs area. While at the Visitor’s Center we did a short nature trail. We also stopped at a few other viewpoints before getting directed off the road at the Devil's Playground, we hiked up to the top of the Playground for the views.
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| View from parking area of Devil's Playground |
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| Marmot |
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| View from the top of Devil's Playground |
After enough time at the playground the line to get to the playground was getting long and since the playground crowd had paid their dues in waiting we got priority to go to the top. The top of Pikes Peak is at 14,115 feet (4302 meters) and let me tell you the air is indeed thin up there. Just walking around made me huff and puff and stairs made me feel like I ran 3 miles. We circled the summit taking pictures and reading all the signs, it even started to snow on us while we were up there.
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| Old summit building and Visitor's Center |
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| Cog Train at the summit |
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| Colorado Springs seen from the summit |
The drive down the mountain was eventful, you can tell when someone is riding the brakes down the mountain as I was following one guy he pulled over and tried to explain using a low gear so that he didn’t ruin his brakes. Not sure if he understood… Luckily at a checkpoint going down the mountain they have an attendant who actually checks brake temps to make sure your brakes are below 300F (150C) when going down the mountain. Another car in front of me was told to pull over and let his brakes cool down, my brakes were a cool 165F (74C). I asked the attendant what was the hottest he saw today and he said 650F (343C)!
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| Brake Station |
We stopped in Woodland Park at the Donut Mill for an ice cream lunch and a donut, delish. Then we headed over to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument where they have numerous redwood tree petrified stumps, and gigantic ones too. We did a short mile hike and also visited the homestead of a lady who was integral in making the area famous for all the fossils that are in the area.
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| Redwood stump |
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| Big Stump, also a redwood stump |
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| The Trios |
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| Hornbek Homestead |
Finally we made our way back into Colorado Springs for dinner at Tokki, a Korean fusion place that was excellent before calling it a night.
Day 8
With a tour booked for 330pm, we used the morning to take it easy. We rolled over to the Denver Biscuit Company for an extremely large biscuit before heading down to Cañon City to take a quick drive on the Skyline Dr. This “skyline” drive is a paved road just outside the city and it runs along a ridge so you get some nice mountain views but it also has a wall of dinosaur footprints for everyone to check out, these footprints are impressions seen from the underside of the mud.
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| Underside of the dinosaur tracks |
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| View from Skyline Drive |
At the end of the drive (which is only 2 miles long) there was a short interpretive trail that explained the local geology and some of the fossils that had been found in the area.
From there we headed back into Cañon City to catch our 330pm tour on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, this is an old railroad line that was built back in the mining days but today it’s just a tour trail that runs from Cañon City over 10 miles to Parkdale and then back to Cañon City. The train features a limited menu for food and drinks along with a full dining car which I believe is only in use for dinner service, vista view cars to view out the top and wide open cars so you can stand outside for clear views of the gorge as the train slowly runs through. We kept it chill and just sat inside and enjoyed the leisurely ride.
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| Royal Gorge Train |
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| Skyview Car |
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| Looking up in the gorge from the train |
Above the train tracks is the Royal Gorge Bridge, which was built in 1929 and is still the tallest suspension bridge in the US and was the tallest in the world until 2001 when it was surpassed by bridges in China. The purpose of the bridge is solely tourism, as it goes nowhere and no real roads lead to it. It’s a cool thing to see out in the middle of nowhere and the gorge is quite amazing.
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| Royal Gorge Bridge (to no where) |
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| The gorge |
After the bridge we drove the hour back to Colorado Springs and called it a night.
Day 9
In my continuing journey to see all the states and state Capitol buildings, and though we’ve been to Denver two previous times we have never actually driven by the state capitol building. So before we hit the airport we parked downtown Denver and did a quick self tour. The building actually does tours starting at 10am but our flight didn’t allow us to catch this tour so we did our own speed run of the building. One interesting fact about the building that probably isn’t special or unique, most capitol buildings have the House and Senate in opposite wings of the building but Senate was in one wing but the former supreme court was in the opposite wing. The House chamber is in the front of the building.
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| Colorado Capitol Building |
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| First floor |
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| Mile High Marker |
Then it was to the airport to fly home.
Next time things to do that we missed:
Painted Mines (outside of Colorado Springs)
Wolf Discovery Center (near Florissant Fossil beds National Monument)
Mesa Verde: Road leading to Long Point House
Ouray: Hike to Cascade Falls and Via Ferrata
Durango to Silverton Scenic train ride
Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs
Red Rock Amphitheater outside of Denver - Dinosaur tracks near parking lot
Seven Falls (Colorado Springs)
Cave of the Winds (Colorado Springs)
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