In Colorado, “The Springs” means the city of Colorado Springs. It’s an hour’s drive south of Denver, on the same side of the Rockies. There’s a huge military presence there with the Air Force Academy and the headquarters of NORAD, which used to be inside a hollowed-out mountain that not even Soviet nukes could break.
My lady wanted to take one last trip in the motorhome before winter set in. We hadn’t really “done” The Springs — just a visit to Garden of the Gods and Pike’s Peak, chonicled here:
— and it was an easy drive. So why not? We camped at Cheyenne Mountain in a state park, right below the giant entrance to the fortified mountain.
You can’t see the entrance into the mountain from this angle, but it’s near the center of the photo.
Day 1: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Yes, there is a zoo on Cheyenne Mountain. I guess if the Russians nuke the place, the animals won’t suffer; being instantly vaporized and all… Anyway, this kitty cat was the only good shot I got there:
I have one other shot from that zoo that I’m willing to share. It was a very cute moment when a young zookeeper needed to coax a big bird back into its coop for the night. She came out into the bird’s pen, talking to it and telling it “it’s time to go in,” and put one hand on each side of the bird. She was so nice about the whole thing, and the bird willingly went with her.
I have posted this picture before, in an earlier Substack.
Day 2: The fake cliff dwellings at Manitou Springs
They’re not entirely fake. They really were built by some forgotten tribe — on the other side of Colorado. And then moved here. At least the guy that moved them hired real tribal members to do the reconstruction. There was a fair bit of archaeological sensitivity to the project, so they are “almost” real. One of the places worth visiting in The Springs, in my not-so-humble opinion. Here’s a pretty good long view of the place:
You can walk around inside the houses, the rooms, and even in the garbage dumps behind the houses.
This is where all the food garbage was tossed. The homes were on the other side of that on our left, and the garbage was tossed through those square holes. Of course, it is clean in here because no one ever lived here. Also, the original dwellings had no electric light up in the corner!
The blue spots are daylight shining through, because the camera’s color was balanced for the electric light in this room.
Later in the day, we happened to venture into the north part of town where I caught this view:
There’s a lot to look at in this photo. It’s a little larger than most, so you can click it if you want to zoom in.
The first item of interest is the hogback in the middle of the photo. This feature, made of Dakota sandstone, runs all across Colorado from Wyoming to New Mexico and is an artifact of the uplift that formed the Rocky Mountains. This is the east edge of the Rockies, right here, and they rise sharply on this side. Behind the camera is nothing but a thousand miles of plains.
This formation, the Dakota, was flat and some distance below the surface. When the rocks under it rose, it was torn and the edge of the tear was forced upward, leaving a nearly-vertical shard. Softer rock surrounding it eroded away, leaving this striking feature.
In the background is the red rock, which I presume is also Dakota sandstone, of Queen’s Canyon. I would love to go exploring up there!
Paid subscribers received a full-size, suitable for printing and framing, copy of this photo a couple of months ago.
Day 3: A Big Cat sanctuary
The Internet says that this place has closed up shop, so it might not still be there. It was in Calhan, a little burg east of the Springs, out on the plains. It was mostly tigers in cages - big cages, big enough for them to run a little bit and play. They had cat toys in there for them. Also, they were able to socialize with each other.
I was allowed inside the cage with one cat: a cub named Waldo. His mother had arrived at the sanctuary pregnant (nobody knew) and given birth to him. They named him after a recent wildfire over by Colorado Springs, and were using him as a fundraiser: for twenty bucks, a member of the public could go inside his cage with him and play with him.
My sweetheart paid the twenty bucks in a heartbeat. As the photog, I went into the cage with her and snapped, snapped snapped while she occupied Wally the same way one plays with a kitten. Really, that is what he acted like: a giant kitten.
I don’t have permission to share photos with her face in it, but she was my hand model once upon a time, and I have a model release for the use of her hands. So here’s a shot of her playing with Wally:
They left us in there way too long. Nobody else got a chance to play with the little tiger. Eventually, he realized that there was a second human in the cage, and started to attack my belly! That was when the zookeepers called “Time!” and helped us out of the cage.
For the rest of the time we were together, my sweetheart said that that time playing with that tiger was the high point of her life.
Day 3: The Paint Mines
This is a county park just outside of Calhan, where top soil covering multi-colored clays has eroded away, exposing the clays.
Native tribes used these colored clays for paint. These clays were laid down at the bottom of an ancient lake bed some 65 to 55 million years ago - right after the dinosaurs died out. Various minerals in the clays give them these vivid colors.
You can see several different layers of mud that were deposited here, including an upper layer, tougher than the ones below, that led to the formation of hoodoos:
These hoodoos appear to be kissing each other! And there are caves under them!
It was all very interesting.
This has been one of my longer posts. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. There are many sights to see and things to do in the Colorado Springs area. Definitely less crowded than Denver, and a much more laid-back vibe. If you ever visit there, consider some of the places in this post.