Today’s post is a memory of a glorious trip up Pikes Peak in Colorado which, at 14,115ft, is the highest I have ever been. So definitely the top of my world – but don’t worry, we drove up. Or rather, we were driven by Scott, husband of fellow-blogger Claudia, both of whom generously gave up their time to show us some of their favourite places in Colorado. You can find Claudia at The Bookwright, where she’s currently engaged in the A to Z Challenge.
After yesterday’s appearance by John, here’s a rare photograph of the two of us together. We’re feeling on top of the world on the Beartooth Highway, surely one of the most scenic roads in America. We were on our way from Yellowstone, Wyoming, to Red Lodge, Montana, and in the original post about this trip, there’s even a Top of the World Store!
Today’s square top is still in the USA, but from a different trip – in 2016 we visited Wyoming and Colorado. It’s also John’s turn to be in the spotlight! Here he is feeling on top of the world on our first hike in Wyoming’s Snowy Range.
Like yesterday’s photograph, this one is from 2014’s trip to Virginia and West Virginia. Here I am on top of the world at a lookout along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.
Linked to Beck’s marvellous April Squares Challenge – #SquareTops.
So it’s April, and the wondrous Becky has started another of her square photography challenges. This time it’s #SquareTops, and one of the suggested ideas is Top of the World. I’m taking that idea and running the hell away with it in a purely self-indulgent fashion. In these difficult times, when we can hardly go beyond our own front doors, it will cheer me up no end to look back on the days when John and I were on top of the world metaphorically, by enjoying our travels, while also being on top of some (usually) natural high point. As John is Photographer-in-Chief on this blog, it will mostly be my grinning face that you see. And for other frustrated gallivanters who fancy some armchair travel, I will always provide a link to the full post.
Today’s photograph, from 2014, is of the Endless Wall Trail above the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Read more in Fayetteville and the New River Gorge.
Denver has one of the top-ranked botanical gardens in the US – as our flight wasn’t until the evening, we were able to spend several happy hours there on the day we went home from last summer’s road trip.
My botanical knowledge is rudimentary to say the least, so I haven’t attempted to caption any of the photos in the next two galleries. Click on anything you like the look of to enlarge or start a slide-show.
Possibly my favourite part was the Monet Pool: water lilies galore.
While we were there, the gardens were hosting Stories in Sculpture – 13 pieces from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. If you are observant, you will count 14 sculptures below – the gardens have their own collection and I’ve included one example from it (Dale Chihuly’s Colorado, the first image). If you click on this gallery you’ll find it is, unlike the others, labelled – the sculptor as the title, and the name of the piece in the caption.
Colorado
Goddess with the golden thighs
Without words
Theater set element from Judith
Walking man
Nike
Dawn tree
Wounded Amazon
Standing figure: knife edge
Woodrow
Junge Frau (Young woman)
Hare on bell on Portland Stone Piers
Cavaliere (Horseman)
La grande chiave (The large key)
There is a bistro in the gardens, which we didn’t try, and a café which we visited for morning coffee and lunch, both good, so you could easily spend all day in there. We had a short time left before we needed to leave for the airport and popped into the neighbouring Cheesman Park.
Cheesman Park
Cheesman Park
Cheesman Park
Then we had to go home after three wonderful weeks touring Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. My first post about it was published on September 29, 2016, so it has been seven months in the writing. I’ll need to speed up, because I certainly don’t want to do any less travelling!
Have you met Claudia at The Bookwright? No? Pop over to have a look, I’ll wait…
Claudia and her husband, Scott, live near Denver and very kindly offered to pick us up and take us to Pikes Peak for the day. Colorado has 54 “Fourteeners” and at 14,115 feet Pikes Peak is only the 31st highest! But don’t worry, there’s a road all the way up (or a cog railway) so no climbing was involved. Not only that, you can eat donuts at the top – it’s amazing that they cook at such high altitudes.
Views from Pikes Peak
Cog railway arrival
Views from Pikes Peak
It was, as you might expect, a tad chilly – but as you can see below, we all look very happy to be there.
Anabel, Scott, Claudia
John, Anabel, Claudia
Not far from Pikes Peak is Garden of the Gods, a park with magnificent red sandstone rock formations, many of which are over 300 million years old. We stopped off there on the way back to Denver.
Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods
Garden of the Gods
We must have behaved ourselves, because next day Claudia and Scott offered to take us out again! This time, we visited the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The gems and minerals section was particularly impressive.
Gems and Minerals Section
Gems and Minerals Section
As was the Sky Terrace with its views over City Park towards the Rocky Mountains.
View from Sky Terrace
View from Sky Terrace
View from Sky Terrace
What an amazing two days! This was the fourth time that we have met up with fellow bloggers, and all have turned out to be lovely people. Many thanks to the wonderful Claudia and Scott for giving so generously of their time to show us around.
That’s almost it for our Summer 2016 road trip – we flew home the next day. However, we didn’t have to be at the airport until early evening so there was plenty of time for one last visit – Denver Botanic Gardens. Coming up next!
We found Denver to be a compact and walkable city. As our guidebook included a walking route which ended up at the State Capitol, very close to our B&B, we set off to do it in reverse.
The Capitol (1890s) wasn’t looking its very best with a bit of scaffolding round about, but we could still admire the ornate golden dome (1908) – 200 ounces of gold leaf went into that to celebrate the Colorado Gold Rush. Denver is also known as Mile High City and the 13th step up to the Capitol marks the exact point where that becomes true.
Colorado State Capitol
Colorado State Capitol
Civil War Monument
Colorado State Capitol portico
Colorado State Capitol dome
13th step Colorado State Capitol
Colorado State Capitol
Across the road Is Civic Center Park. I liked the idea of using part of it to grow produce for food-banks.
Civic Center Park
Ornate railings and Civic Center Park
Civic Center Park
Civic Center Park
Civic Center clock tower
Civic Center Park
Civic Center Park
Civic Center Park
Two Old West sculptures sit in the park, both by Alexander Phimister Proctor: Bronco Buster (1920) and On the War Trail (1922). Apparently, the model for the cowboy was arrested for murder before the statue was finished, but Proctor insisted that he should be allowed to continue posing for as long as he needed him.
Bronco Buster
On the war trail
To one side of the park are the public library and Denver Art Museum (DAM), both interesting buildings. The latter has one of the largest Native American art collections in the USA, which I can easily believe as we spent hours in there (including having lunch in their very fine restaurant, Palettes). Unfortunately, even though I still have the floor plan, I have not been able to caption much in the gallery below. I remember being fascinated by the video about creating the woman sitting with several infants between her legs, and could have told you its significance at the time, but now? No idea! That will teach me to leave things six months before writing them up.
Denver Public Library
Lao Tzu by Mark di Suvero
Big Sweep by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Trade canoe for Don Quixote by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Back on the street, we found plenty more art including this 40-foot-tall blue bear peeking through the window of the Convention Center (I See What You Mean by Lawrence Argent) and Jonathan Borofsky’s Dancers, two giant white figures prancing towards the Performing Arts Complex.
I see what you mean
Dancers
Our next stop was the Tattered Cover Book Store where we took the weight off our feet over a coffee. Friends had told us about this place: it was huge when they visited, but competition from Amazon and the like has reduced it to one floor. The little scene on the stairs commemorates Charlie Shugarts (1918-2007), Friend of Tattered Cover.
Tattered Cover, Denver
Tattered Cover, Denver
Our route then took us down Cherry Creek to the South Platte River. Here, in Commons Park, we found the sculptures below. I think, checking online, that these were temporary, part of an exhibition of nine sculptures by Jorge Marín called Wings of the City. I also realise I should have stood between the giant wings before John took the photo. Well, he knows I’m an angel anyway 😉
Wings of the City
Wings of the City
Wings of the City
Just beyond Commons Park is the dramatic Millennium Bridge which marks the beginning of the walking tour – or, in our case, the end. We were tired after being on our feet all day and decided, rather than going back to the B&B to come out again for dinner, we would eat earlier than normal so that we could go home to relax.
Millennium Bridge
Millennium Bridge
This also meant we could re-admire by night some of the buildings we had walked past earlier in the day, such as this one – the Daniels and Fisher Tower. Modelled after St Mark’s Bell Tower in Venice, it originally formed part of a department store, long since demolished. Since the 1980s it has been residential and office space. Wow, I’d love to live there!
Daniels and Fisher Tower
Daniels and Fisher Tower
Our vacation was rapidly drawing to a close – but the next day was a highlight: a meeting with a fellow blogger. Who could that be? More soon!
On our way out of Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped for a walk round the delightful Lily Lake. Our stay had been all too short.
From here we drove to Nederland where we had a coffee on the balcony of Happy Trails and people-watched for a while.
Happy Trails
Memorial bench at Happy Trails
Our guidebook described Nederland as a lively, ramshackle mountain-town magnet for hippies – and we had to agree, even though we were there at the wrong time of year for either Nedfest or Frozen Dead Guy Days. Yes, really. The term Ned has other connotations for us anyway – in Scotland it’s a derogatory term meaning a non-educated delinquent!
Coffee Roaster
Coffee Roaster
Floral sidewalk
Floral sidewalk
Nederland, CO
Town Hall, 1874
Ned’s
Creek and reservoir
After a stroll round town and down the creek to the reservoir, we returned to our car which was parked opposite the library. That looked the best building in the place to me – how wonderful to have a reading area on a balcony over a stream! Unfortunately, it was closed or I’d have dragged John in for a visit.
Nederland Community Library
Nederland Community Library
Our final stop was Boulder, somewhere which would repay a much longer visit. We had a picnic lunch in Chautauqua Park near the Flatirons before stopping off in town where we particularly admired the Court House.
Flatirons, Boulder
Near Flatirons, Boulder
Boulder Court House
Boulder Court House
Boulder Court House
After that it was straight on to Denver and the beautiful Capitol Hill Mansion B&B. The Bluebell Room was gorgeous ….
Bluebell Room
Bluebell Room
…. we even had a sun-porch which gave us our own private entrance to the house ….
Bluebell Room sunroom
Bluebell Room sunroom
…. the exterior of which was equally spectacular ….
Capitol Hill Mansion B&B
Capitol Hill Mansion B&B
…. and to cap it all, there was a delightful garden in which to have breakfast.
Breakfast garden
Breakfast garden
So this was our luxury home for the next four nights! Only three more posts and then I will finally have finished blogging about our Summer 2016 road trip.
Rocky Mountain is a very busy park! By the time we got ourselves out in the morning, and that wasn’t very late, the signs for the car parks at the popular Bear Lake Trailhead were already indicating full. We headed for the Deer Mountain Trailhead instead.
Climbing Deer Mountain is a 6 mile round trip and you end up at over 10,000 feet. Before you get too impressed, I’ll confess that you actually start around 8,900 – but some of it is very steep, especially at the end. My knees didn’t like that section one little bit.
Here are some views from the way up.
On Deer Mountain
View from Deer Mountain
View from Deer Mountain
Just before the summit we stopped to get our (well, my) breath back and I made the acquaintance of this little guy. I think he was begging, but I didn’t give him anything. Too many titbits is probably what made him so bold, and animals should not be encouraged to become dependent on humans for food. But he was cute.
Pressing on to the summit, we could see right back down to our hotel on the edge of Estes Park.
On Deer Mountain
View from Deer Mountain to Estes Park
View from Deer Mountain
Then it was time to retrace our steps, stopping for a quick picnic on the way.
On Deer Mountain
On Deer Mountain
In the afternoon, we took the one-way gravel Old Fall River Road which winds uphill for 11 miles and 3000 feet to Fall River Pass. The short trail at Chasm Falls made a pleasant stop on the way.
Old Fall River Road
Chasm Falls
Chasm Falls
Old Fall River Road
Old Fall River Road
Old Fall River Road
At the pass, we had a very welcome hot coffee at the Alpine Visitor Centre – it was cold up there and still had pockets of snow. Information boards told us more about the road which opened in 1920, and until 1932 was the only motor route across the park. Then it was replaced by Trail Ridge Road, our route back down.
At Alpine Visitor Centre
At Alpine Visitor Centre
At Alpine Visitor Centre
The views from Trail Ridge were stunning.
We were really sorry to have only one full day in Rocky Mountain, but the next day we were off to Denver – and we were really excited about that.
Linked to Jo’s Monday Walks where this week she takes us on a stroll around Lucca.
Today’s post is a memory of a glorious trip up Pikes Peak in Colorado which, at 14,115ft, is the highest I have ever been. So definitely the top of my world – but don’t worry, we drove up. Or rather, we were driven by Scott, husband of fellow-blogger Claudia, both of whom generously gave up their time to show us some of their favourite places in Colorado. You can find Claudia at The Bookwright, where she’s currently engaged in the A to Z Challenge.
After yesterday’s appearance by John, here’s a rare photograph of the two of us together. We’re feeling on top of the world on the Beartooth Highway, surely one of the most scenic roads in America. We were on our way from Yellowstone, Wyoming, to Red Lodge, Montana, and in the 
Today’s square top is still in the USA, but from a different trip – in 2016 we visited Wyoming and Colorado. It’s also John’s turn to be in the spotlight! Here he is feeling on top of the world on our first hike in Wyoming’s Snowy Range.
Like yesterday’s photograph, this one is from 2014’s trip to Virginia and West Virginia. Here I am on top of the world at a lookout along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park.
So it’s April, and the wondrous Becky has started another of her square photography challenges. This time it’s 
Have you met Claudia at 
