Garden of the Gods

With gas prices so high, and living in the beautiful state of Colorado, Steve and I decided not to go anywhere for Memorial Day but instead explore some of the beauty right here in our backyard! On Sunday we took a drive 65 miles south to the Colorado Springs area and took in the breathtaking Garden of the Gods. The weather (while looking cloudy in this first photo) was actually gorgeous - 80 degrees with just a tad of cloud cover. The rock formations were amazing...

Driving through the park - you can get up close to these incredible rocks. We saw several people rockclimbing to the tippy-top of some of them. There was a terrific christian youth choir from Florida performing in the visitor center, which made the view of the park from the balcony even more surreal. Many of the rock formations have been given "names" because of their likeness to something - or simply their unique qualities. Steve took the following photo of me (holding his Yorkie, Killer) in front of "Balanced Rock" - pretty cool, huh?

What you can't see in this picture is that the big boulder only touches the rocks beneath it in about a space of three feet. It just "balances" there.

After we left Garden of the Gods, we headed over to the town of Manitou Springs - which is a very cute little town right at the base of Pike's Peak. They were having their Memorial Day arts & crafts fair - so it was crowded with tourists.

Overall we had a very relaxing weekend. The weather was great and we had plenty of time to unplug from our cellphones and email and just "be" (just the way I like it!)

Now it's back to work for a couple of weeks before we head out on another Colorado mountain vacation in June. I'm looking forward to the next one already!