Colorado (6)

This probably will be my last post with pics from my trip to Colorado. The pics that will be shown here are from the "Garden of the Gods" a collection of red sandstone rock formations which were formed through 300 million years of erosion.

During the ride through the park we saw some spectacular shapes. Unfortunately I don't have pics of those. The pics below were taken from the parking place near the visitor's centre and from the viewpoint at the visitor centre. Another amazing thing for me was how quickly light conditions can change. If you take a look at pic 2 and 3 it's hard to believe that there is just a few minutes difference between the two pics when they were taken. I found it rather amazing that suddenly the sky changed from a bit blur light to a more red coloured sky. If you want to see some more online pics from the "Garden of the Gods" to get an impression of all the different and spectacular shapes you could check this .

It was getting a bit dusky when the last two pics from me and my friend Julie were taken. In the back in the middle you can see Pike's Peak with it's top covered in clouds. We were really lucky it was so clear when we were there on top.

The pics only will give you a slight idea of the beautiful scenery that I saw. It's almost impossible to grasp the grand and gorgeous panoramic views that I experienced. I'm not a religious person, far from that, but this kind of impressive scenery always makes me feel small and humble.

Anyway, before I get sentimental: Enjoy the pics!

Colorado (5)

I returned home last Tuesdayafternoon ftom a nice and exiting two week trip to Colorado. I promised I would post some more pics, so here they are. The pics are from the last weekend from my trip into the mountains with my friends Julie and Alan. The pics were shot at the top of Pike's Peak and because of the good and clear weather the views were excellent and spectacular. Some more info about the trip you can read in my previous post. Later this weekend I will post some pics from the "Garden of the Gods" where we went after coming down from Pike's Peak.

Julie and Alan

Colorado (4)

The past few days I didn't do much from a sightseeing point of view. A had a very relaxed time these days. Spend my days with reading, watching some tv, sleeping, internet to check the news and some of my favorite websites en weblogs and had some talks with Julie, her husband Alan and Julie's son Brian. I met Julie's sister last Thursday and that night Julie and I went to a sportsbar to have dinner and watch an ice-hockeygame on a big screen with some of Julie's friends.

This Saturday Julie and Alan took me on a ride into the mountains. This time a bit more further away than the weekend before. After a nice ride with nice scenery we first checked in at the motel in Frisco where we were suppose to stay for the night. After checking in and a short rest we drove up to Southpark (the real city not from the cartoon). The town itself is not much special, basically it is a kind of ghosttown/old miningtown. I just wanted to have a picture from me with one of the Southpark signboards, because I'm a big fan of the cartoonserie. On the way back we came through some nice ski resort (I forgot the name of the city) where I bought some t-shirts for presents.

After that we went back to the motel, took a rest again and went out for dinner. In the mean time it started to snow pretty heavy. We were suppose to go to Pike's Peak on Sunday, but that also depended on the weather. After checking the weather forecast we decided to leave early at 7:30 A.M. Despite the heavy snowing from the night before the roads were not that bad, the weather was excellent and we arrived ahead of our schedule, so we were able to take an earlier train up to Pike's Peak with it's top at 14.100 feet (about 4.300 metres). The 80 minute trainride with some very steep parts was very nice and showed the change in landscape from trees, huge rocks, creeks, small waterfalls to just snow, and ice above the treeline. The views from the top with it's high and very cold winds, was very spectacular. After looking around and the trainride back we drove up to the nearby "Garden of the Gods" a collection of red sandstone rock formations formed through 300 million years of erosion.

After taking a look around, visiting the visitor's centre and taking some pictures we went home. On the way back we had dinner somewhere to finish off a very nice weekend with some spectacular views and sightseeing and to finish a nice and relaxed two week holiday with Julie and Alan.

Tomorrow I'm flying back to Holland, so this will be my last post from the USA. I'll post a few pics from our weekendtrip to Southpark and Pike's Peak and I will post some more pics later after I got back to Holland. I hope you like them.

A view from the parking place at our motel In Frisco

View from the train to Pike's Peak

Here and there you might see some reflection from the train window

View from the top (more pics later)

Colorado (3)

Julie and Alan (Julie's husband) took us (me and Becky) for a ride into the mountains last Saturday. The scenery was very pretty. We saw some wildlife like mountaingoats (forgot how they are officially called) and a huge number of elk. I shot some nice videos with my digital camera from the car, while we drove around. And we made two or three short stops to shoot some pics. Here are a few. Enjoy!

Colorado (2)

During Julie's lunchbreak (she works from home) Julie, Becky (a friend from Minnesota, with a hawribly funny Minnesotan accent) and I took a walk down the trail, that starts from the end of the street where Julie lives. The trail goes down to the foothills. It was really a nice walk. It wasn't as colourful as it probably looks during early autumn or spring and summer, but the scenery was still very nice, at least it was for me, being a cityboy who isn't used to nearby nature. We saw some deer and snakes (one dead, another alive). Also shot some black and white pics. Here are just a few pics to give you an impression.

Almost the same pic as the previous, but then B&W

These were the deer I was talking about

Colorado

Arrived yesterdaynight at Denver, Colorado, where I was picked up by my friend Julie. I'm still a bit jetlagged, but I hope I can catch up some sleep tonight.

Julie took me this afternoon for a short ride around the neighbourhood to the nearby waterreservoir. The neighbourhood is real nice and beautiful. I can imagine why Julie likes to ride her motorbike around here. If the weather is okay on Saturday we will go for a ride a bit higher up the mountains. The scenery must be very nice up there.

I took a few pics, just to get started. Almost have two weeks left to catch up. :-) It has been quite dry lately, so that's why the waterlevel is not very high at the reservoir. More pics will be posted later.