Back to Colorado Springs

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Our next stop after spending several weeks in the greater Denver area would be in Colorado Springs. We had actually stopped there for 5 nights in the fall of 2020 as we worked our way from Arizona to Florida. That time we stayed at the local Elks Lodge. We weren’t sure we could count on one of the dozen or so sites being open in early June at the lodge, so we had reserved a spot at Cheyenne Mountain State Park (CMSP) for 14 nights. We had heard wonderful things about this state park and were pleased we had been able to get a spot.

Not that it didn’t take some planning and effort to secure our campsite. State park campgrounds in Colorado are on a 6 month rolling reservation window. CMSP only had 61 campsites and not all of them are large enough for our rig. For reference, the campgrounds at Boyd Lake and Cherry Creek both have 140 or more campsites. As we were planning this trip to Colorado, we were watching how quickly the sites in CMSP were taken and we realized we needed to be “the early bird” if we wanted a spot. Six months ago on the day we wanted to reserve a site here, we set the alarm to get up at 2 AM (Florida time) to be able to reserve one of the 3 possible sites that would be available at midnight local time. We got our preferred site but when we got back up at a more sane our, the other two sites were already taken!

It’s only about a 75 mile drive to CMSP, but with the Jeep still in the shop, we had a rental car that couldn’t be flat towed behind the motorhome. There have been only a few instances where we have a very short drive and don’t bother to connect the car and Chris and I drive separately. A 90 minute drive would be entirely different. Not having her sitting next to me to help with navigation questions or check on some noise heard inside the rig would make for a little less pleasant drive. Fortunately I didn’t run into any issues and made it through Colorado Springs and to the park on the south side of town.

The campground is about 2 miles into the park which isn’t too unusual but the fact that we gain 525 feet in elevation in that distance is something new for us. The most obvious point is the view from our campsite. It overlooks the south side of Colorado Springs and well into the plains of eastern Colorado and we are in the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain. This is the location of NORAD facility, deep in the center of the granite mountain. Just across from the main state park entrance is the entrance to the sprawling 137,000 acre US Army base of Fort Carson. While we are here for the 2 weeks, we will feel obligated to watch the entertaining WarGames - a 1983 movie with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy that “takes place” in Cheyenne Mountain. We can see lights up in the mountain at night but aren’t able to actually see the tunnel entrance into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex and unfortunately this is not one of those facilities that gives tours!

Looking at Cheyenne Mountain at State Park Entrance

View from Our Site's Patio

Facing Mountain

Colorado Springs at Night

Like I mentioned earlier, we were here about a year and a half ago. During that stop, we did some of the most popular things in the area - Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods and some hikes in North Cheyenne Cañon Park. (Garden of Gods post , Pikes Peak post) It’s not that these spots aren’t worthy of another visit, but we know there is much more to see in the Colorado Springs area so we don’t feel obligated to revisit things we have done already.

On our first full day, we head to a Red Rock Canyon Open Space. It’s only about a mile south of Garden of the Gods and sounds to have many similarities to its better known neighbor. There are over 20 hiking/biking trails in the nearly 1500 acres of land so it took a little effort to determine which one to pick. We decide on the 3.5 mile loop that is a combination of 3 trails - Red Rock Canyon, Roundup and Contemplative Trails. It has about 500 feet of elevation gain and sounds like a good loop to see much of the park without killing us in the process. There are a couple fairly large parking areas on the north side of the park which was good since it was pretty busy for a Friday morning. The day started out quite overcast but slowly improved over the course of our hike.

Trees Getting a Foothold

Back in the late 1800’s, gypsum and sandstone were mined or quarried from the property. This fact is definitely visible along the first mile of the trail. The size of the blocks that were taken is clear by the visible cut marks in the side of the hill. But there are plenty of undisturbed sandstone hills with interesting patterns created by erosion form the elements over the centuries. It’s surprising to see how many trees have managed to take root in what looks like solid rock. There is a small cave just off the main trail that was worth a look.

Previous Quarry Location

Beautiful Sandstone

Small Cave

At the southern end of Red Rock Canyon Trail, it takes a hard right and heads up one of the sandstone hills.  A few switchbacks helps to reduce the impact of the elevation change. There are some nice views as we continue to climb. Our trail crosses the Mesa Trail but we do a short detour to the overlook at the end of that trail before continue on our intended route. For the most part, the trail is in good shape and easy to follow as long as you pay attention at trail intersections. There was one tricky spot where the trail crosses a steeply sloped outcropping that has minimal footholds worn in to it. Had there been rain, or worse snow, that would have been a real challenge.

View as We Continue Up Trail

Precarious Crossing

At one point along the trail, I spotted a brightly colored bird flitting around from tree to tree. It took some time before it paused in a visible location for a decent photograph. At the time I wasn’t sure what I was looking at but later determined it was a black-headed Grosbeak - a rather pretty bird. After about 2 miles of climbing, we reached the high point of our loop and started to head down. There were definitely some very beautiful sandstone rock outcroppings along the way. One was part of the trail and it was tough to get down safely.

Black-headed Grosbeak

A Sandstone Fin

Slow and Steady

There were some nice openings where we could see some of the familiar sandstone fins that are in Garden of the Gods just over a mile away. But Red Rock Canyon has plenty of its own fins jutting out. In many ways, this park may be nicer simply because there were many fewer people out and about compared to the time we visited Garden of the Gods in the past. We might need to find another trail here during the rest of our stay.

Garden of the Gods in Distance

Better View of Garden of Gods in Background

Low Hanging Clouds

Sandstone Spire

We headed into Old Colorado City to find a place for lunch. We planned to explore the quaint little shops but a rain storm was coming thru and we didn’t feel like getting soaked so we headed back to camp and called it a day. We did get a text from the Jeep dealer in Denver telling us our PCM board that wasn’t expected to arrive until the end of June, had come in early and was being installed. It was unexpected good news for a change.

We drove back to Denver on Saturday and picked up the car. I took it for a very long test drive to convince myself it was fixed. After 45 minutes, I decided we were good to go and we headed back to the rental car place to drop off the car we had only picked up 4 days earlier for a one month rental. Since we had prepaid for the rental, we were told they could not refund us any money but we could call customer service and possibly be credited for dropping the car off 24 days early!

We started to drive back to Colorado Springs in our Jeep and had just gotten on the expressway when the check engine light came on again. We were only 5 miles from the dealer so we headed back. Since this was a Saturday, they didn’t have the full crew working to do any diagnosis. We headed back to the car rental place hoping we could possibly get our monthly rental back since we needed to leave the Jeep again. Nope, our Explorer had already been rented out to somebody else. They did have a car available so we got our third rental car in less than 2 weeks! We went back to the dealer, dropped off the Jeep again and drove our Kia Rio to Colorado Spring feeling rather frustrated.

We did call the Avis customer service center and pleaded our case. We had paid for a 28 day rental and only kept the car for 4 days. It would seem they owed us some sort of compensation. We got off the phone not feeling confident that we would be credited any money. We checked our credit card transactions for a few days after the call and no credit had appeared. Flash forward a few weeks, when I went to reconcile the credit card statement, I discovered that Avis had credited us and actually only charged us for a 4 day rental.

Our Site with 3rd Rental Car

Since Saturday had been a rather disappointing day, we headed out on Sunday for a hike. Aiken Canyon Preserve is about 10 miles south of camp. We stopped along the way for a geocache located near a “big bug”. We were intrigued by the description and we found Herkimer, the world’s largest beetle. It appears to be a statue advertising a nearby campground/insect museum/space museum. As interesting as that combination sounds, we moved on so we could get to our hike.

Herkimer, the World's Largest Beetle

The Aiken Canyon Loop Trail is 3.6 miles long with 450 feet of elevation gain. It looks to be a somewhat desolate location, but there were a couple other cars at the parking area so we weren’t the only ones here. The signage at the trailhead seemed to be fairly new and the trail started out in reasonable shape as head out. We can see some hills nearby and some interesting rock formations but it isn’t clear where we might end up during this hike. It’s fairly flat for the first 3/4 mile when we reach the fork in the trail.  It’s a loop, we head to the left to proceed in a clockwise direction but for this trail it doesn’t matter too much.

Aiken Canyon Trailhead

Starting Along Aiken Canyon Trail

Large Rock Outcropping

Fork in the Trail

The next part of the trail is where it really shines. Now we are walking in the middle of many of the rock formations. The prickly pear cactus have started to bloom as well so there is more to look at than simply rocks. On the backside of a hill is a spur trail. The Overlook Trail only adds half a mile so we go for it.

Cactus Blooms

Start of Overlook Spur

This trail is a bit more challenging. We will gain another 150 feet or so in the 1/4 mile it takes to get to the overlook. At one of the switchbacks along the route, it seems like the trail disappears. Fortunately we look back and up and see it is very well marked but just doesn’t look very much like a trail. Getting up this part was okay, getting back down could be more difficult.

View as We Climb Overlook Trail

Hmmm, So That's the Trail?

We make it to the top of the overlook. It’s not like there is a designated area to look out from. There are many openings in the small trees and brush so we can look in all directions to get a nice view. We take advantage of the seclusion and have our lunch. We safely made it back down to the main loop trail. We find a second spur trail that heads up into a small canyon. We follow it for a short distance but aren’t impressed with the views so we head back to the car. This trail ended up being much nicer than I had anticipated and is worth the hike - especially up to the overlook.

View from Overlook

I See Indian Woman with Outstretched Arms & Papoose