The Denver/Colorado Springs Trip 2019
Our trip started after lunch and we drove to Bighorn Canyon National Park to the Devil's Canyon Overlook out of Lovell, Wyoming. After listening to our many screams echoing in the canyon, we continued our drive to the Thermopolis High School for our first night's stay where we played a lot of basketball. Amira had to complete her track practice drills before she could play. We explored the Hot Springs State Park then enjoyed several stops on the drive through the Wind River Canyon to Shoshoni. Our first stop was a tour of the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory in Boulder, Colorado. Unfortunately the factory was not running, but it was still very interesting and the best part was that everyone got to sample several teas.
The group got to go to the Downtown Aquarium and Mason got to spend time with his dad. We spent the night with Mrs. Nesbit's friend, Butchy. We grilled gourmet burgers and hot dogs and had various samples from his salsa business, Western Spirit Salsa Co. James was a huge fan of all the salsas. The next morning we explored downtown Denver starting at Union Station then visiting the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, before driving to Manitou Springs to the Cave of the Winds Mountain Park. A great time was had by all on the Wind Walker Challenge ropes/obstacle course and they enjoyed racing each other up the climbing wall. Several of the students wanted to do the freefall excursion, but they didn't allow themselves enough time because they were having so much fun on the 7D virtual reality ride. Our next stop was to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. The structure was amazing. The students couldn't get over how little the rooms were. We then drove to check out the Manitou Incline, which is a former cablecar track but is now an intense hike more than 2,000 feet uphill. We didn't have time to fit this 2.5 mile hike into our already full day. By this time we had already walked about five miles, then it was time to go for our hike. This hike was supposed to take us to a little lake at Red Rock Canyon Open Space. However, we didn't realize there was more than one trailhead and we started at the wrong one. Due to exhaustion and our check in time at the Manitou Springs High School and subsequent dinner reservations, we never saw the lake, but the rock formations were really cool. We cleaned up for our one nice dinner at Alchemy, an Irish gastropub, and had some great new dishes. Friends of Mrs. Nesbit's from Three Forks, who had moved to Colorado Springs earlier in the year met us at the restaurant. We walked approximately fourteen miles on this day!!
The morning of Day 4 started with a hike and exploration of the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs. Then we spent time at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It was cold and damp, but the giraffe exhibit was stellar! Our Google Maps and GPS units were struggling and twice tried to send us back to Denver. Those delays, backtracking for what we thought was a lost wallet, and our bus driver not being able to find his way back to us after dropping us off for a hike, really caught up to us throughout the day as we made our way on the west side of the mountains through Frisco to Rock Springs, Wyoming. We didn't get to do some of the planned hikes. It was beautiful but a very, very long bus ride with no bathrooms and a lot of dead elk on the sides of the road as it was getting dark heading to Baggs, WY. We did get to stop and walk around Steamboat Springs. Most students stopped at the candy store and the book store. We stayed at the Rock Springs High School in a conference room. With all of our delays, we only had 10 minutes to spare to get to the school while the custodians were still working! We set out every item of food that we had and people could just take whatever they wanted, as there also was no place to eat on our route on the western front of the mountains!
Our final day found us driving to Jackson Hole. We got out of the bus at the lake in Pinedale, but because of the snow we didn't spend too much time walking around. When we got to Jackson, we spent time exploring the Town Square, the Grand Teton National Park visitor center, and the National Elk Refuge. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Teton mountains as they were under cloud cover. Although there was nearly three feet of snow when we got to Island Park, the roads were open enough for us to visit Big Springs. It was beautiful there and the fish were abundant. The highlights were feeding the fish and the fact that many of them had never seen that much snow! There were nine students and two chaperones.
The group got to go to the Downtown Aquarium and Mason got to spend time with his dad. We spent the night with Mrs. Nesbit's friend, Butchy. We grilled gourmet burgers and hot dogs and had various samples from his salsa business, Western Spirit Salsa Co. James was a huge fan of all the salsas. The next morning we explored downtown Denver starting at Union Station then visiting the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, before driving to Manitou Springs to the Cave of the Winds Mountain Park. A great time was had by all on the Wind Walker Challenge ropes/obstacle course and they enjoyed racing each other up the climbing wall. Several of the students wanted to do the freefall excursion, but they didn't allow themselves enough time because they were having so much fun on the 7D virtual reality ride. Our next stop was to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. The structure was amazing. The students couldn't get over how little the rooms were. We then drove to check out the Manitou Incline, which is a former cablecar track but is now an intense hike more than 2,000 feet uphill. We didn't have time to fit this 2.5 mile hike into our already full day. By this time we had already walked about five miles, then it was time to go for our hike. This hike was supposed to take us to a little lake at Red Rock Canyon Open Space. However, we didn't realize there was more than one trailhead and we started at the wrong one. Due to exhaustion and our check in time at the Manitou Springs High School and subsequent dinner reservations, we never saw the lake, but the rock formations were really cool. We cleaned up for our one nice dinner at Alchemy, an Irish gastropub, and had some great new dishes. Friends of Mrs. Nesbit's from Three Forks, who had moved to Colorado Springs earlier in the year met us at the restaurant. We walked approximately fourteen miles on this day!!
The morning of Day 4 started with a hike and exploration of the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs. Then we spent time at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It was cold and damp, but the giraffe exhibit was stellar! Our Google Maps and GPS units were struggling and twice tried to send us back to Denver. Those delays, backtracking for what we thought was a lost wallet, and our bus driver not being able to find his way back to us after dropping us off for a hike, really caught up to us throughout the day as we made our way on the west side of the mountains through Frisco to Rock Springs, Wyoming. We didn't get to do some of the planned hikes. It was beautiful but a very, very long bus ride with no bathrooms and a lot of dead elk on the sides of the road as it was getting dark heading to Baggs, WY. We did get to stop and walk around Steamboat Springs. Most students stopped at the candy store and the book store. We stayed at the Rock Springs High School in a conference room. With all of our delays, we only had 10 minutes to spare to get to the school while the custodians were still working! We set out every item of food that we had and people could just take whatever they wanted, as there also was no place to eat on our route on the western front of the mountains!
Our final day found us driving to Jackson Hole. We got out of the bus at the lake in Pinedale, but because of the snow we didn't spend too much time walking around. When we got to Jackson, we spent time exploring the Town Square, the Grand Teton National Park visitor center, and the National Elk Refuge. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Teton mountains as they were under cloud cover. Although there was nearly three feet of snow when we got to Island Park, the roads were open enough for us to visit Big Springs. It was beautiful there and the fish were abundant. The highlights were feeding the fish and the fact that many of them had never seen that much snow! There were nine students and two chaperones.