Post Scripts: Manitou Springs

While in the Manitou Springs area, on our recent trip to Colorado, riding the Cog Railway up Pike’s Peak was, of course, a priority. For 100 years passengers have climbed the 14,110 foot mountain in safety and comfort. While we were advised to watch for wildlife headed for the summit, all we saw was an elk herd grazing a mile or so distant – plus three Marmots frolicking in the doorway of an abandoned cabin.

During the trip, however, there was no lack of lovely mountain vistas, now and then a peek at the highway that accommodates those drivers who want to experience the thrills of steep grades and sharp turns to the very top of the peak. It was quite hazy from the summit, however, and difficult to photograph distant scenes. I have always felt perfectly safe in the rail cars as they are made by the Swiss who invented rail cars for mountain railroading, but I noted that some passengers appeared squeamish as we "cogged" our way up in the shadows of huge boulders, over-hanging cliffs, often dense forest and a few times fascinating waterfalls

While on the summit I photographed a tablet honoring Kathy Lee Bates, poet and college professor, who in July of 1893 made her first visit to Pikes Peak and saw the view that inspired the poem that has become our unofficial national anthem. You know this song as "America the Beautiful." I was quite moved to read those words up on that mountain top with such glorious views all around me.

Each seat on the rail car holds six and we occupied five of them and were joined by a college professor from Czechoslovakia. Our son-in-law, Mike, sat across from him up and down the whole trip and they enjoyed quite a conversation. Mike is quite a conversationalist and the two of them exchanged a lot of information. It was my fate to sit next to the professor and I quickly discovered that deodorant is not a part of their travel kit. Gosh!

All good things must come to an end and after a week in Colorado we began the trip home with some reluctance. But I must mention our stop in Roswell, New Mexico, home of a museum devoted to the "flying saucer" episodes that made the news some years ago.

The city has established a museum, devoted to the mystery of flying saucers and their strange-appearing occupants. Our brief time there left us as confused as ever but the museum is most interesting and worthwhile. The best part was the "cover-up" section devoted to how government officials attempted to keep the incident from the public…

It was a great vacation and our driver, Mike, and our navigator and daughter, Kathy, deserve credit for a memorable trip. They even insisted we visit Snyder, Texas, and I have photos to prove it. I am standing in front of the Snyder bank, the Snyder depot, the Snyder this and that and even the Snyder water tower.

Who would ever go to Manitou Springs and not visit the Garden of the Gods? We’ve been there numerous times and always find a scenic view that inspires and impresses. I think Molly was more impressed with the red rocks this time since she was only about two when we visited there last. She is somewhat of a dare-devil and had to be restrained a time or two, but we did get a nice picture of her appearing to hold up the famous "Balanced Rock" there. I doubt I’ll ever get tired of visiting Colorado’s scenic wonders