Guest post by kjakubczak
Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.
Day 1
- Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
On Day 1 we landed at the Denver airport in the early afternoon and drove to our hotel, the Cheyenne Mountain Resort. The resort was a perfect base location for seeing the sights around Colorado Springs. We spent the afternoon at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was quite a remarkable zoo, since it was built into the mountains. The views were fabulous!
Day 2
- Olympic Training Center
- Garden of the Gods
- Manitou Springs
- Pike’s Peak
We started Day 2 by driving to the Olympic Training Center. We went on a tour of the grounds, and thought it was very informative – it was great to see some athletes training! Next we went to the Garden of the Gods. We spent a couple of hours hiking around the trails and seeing the mountain formations. After a stop in the town of Manitou Springs for lunch, we drove about half-way up Pikes Peak. (Manitou Springs is a wonderful stop for families – they have lot of arcades and mechanical rides).
Day 3
We didn’t get to spend much time in Denver, but we did drive there for a day to see family. We had lunch a restaurant called Casa Bonita, which has performances and skits all through the day. Fun family experience!
Day 4
- Manitou Cliff Dwellings
- Cave of the Winds
The Manitou Cliff Dwellings and the Cave of the Winds ended up being a little less exciting than anticipated. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings were fun to walk around, but since they are not in their original location they feel a little ‘fake’. At Cave of the Winds we didn’t do any of the major rides/attractions because we had a 1-year-old with us. But we had fun panning for gold and checking out the view. Cheyenne Mountain Resort has a nice pool, so we spent some time there the rest of the day.
Day 5
- Air Force Academy
On our final day we went to the Air Force Academy. I highly recommend watching the video and taking a walk to the Chapel. The Chapel was breath-taking.
On day 6 we flew home.
A couple of times we went to dinner at the Broadmoor Resort which was nearby. While the hotel itself was very expensive, it was nice to walk around the grounds and try out the food.
Traveled in September 2014
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