Knox the Fox traveled with his frequent companions, Chad and Melissa Tindell, on a birthday trip to Colorado for Chad’s mom, Jewell. The week-long trip included several adventures for the crew exploring geologic formations, historic sights and wildlife.
The first day in Colorado Springs provided “picture perfect weather” according to Melissa as they hiked in to view the Garden of the Gods. The exceptional geological features of the park are the highly visible sedimentary rock formations, created by ancient mountains eroded and buried in their own sediments.
With the snow-covered Pike’s Peak in the backdrop, this marvel is breathtaking in pictures but even more so in video.
The Garden of the Gods has been used to depict settings for movie scenes that are supposedly in Asia, Africa, the South Seas and naturally the American West. Such classic films as Bonanza, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger and Tarzan the Ape Man are among the thousands using the Garden of the Gods as a location.
Day two led the Tindells to the Broadmoor, a Colorado Springs resort over 100 years old, sitting on the base of the Cheyenne Mountain, southwest of Colorado Springs.
Known for its European flair, the Broadmoor is also famous for the food at its 20 restaurants or cafes, 20 unique retail outlets, and its two legendary golf courses where US Women’s Open, US Senior Open, and PGA Cup tournaments have been held.
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- Garden of the Gods
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- Broadmoor Hotel
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- Melissa in the massive Broadmoor library
The third day turned bitterly cold including ice and snow for the trip to Victor, Colorado. Due to the discovery of gold ore in 1890/91, over 500 gold mines appeared on the mountainsides, starting the Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Rush.
The town of Victor, founded in 1893, is about five miles from Cripple Creek and was known as the City of Mines because the largest and richest gold mines of the district were located on Battle Mountain just above Victor.
Victor is also the home to Rita the Rock Planter, made of reclaimed wood from sculptor Thomas Dambo. Dambo has created 100 different types of giant Troll sculptures. He has created large scale artwork from discarded material in over 20 countries across five continents as his mission to show the world that truly someone’s trash could be someone else’s treasure.
Estes Park culminated the week for this Colorado adventure. Estes Park is a town, not a park, but it locates next to the Rocky Mountain National Park and is known as a base for the park. Regardless of its “town” description, it is home to elk, bears and other wildlife.
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- Knox with Rita the Rock Planter
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- Rocky Mtn view from Estes Park
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- Knox & friends at Estes Park
Melissa describes the trip as “simply wonderful!” They celebrated while visiting with family, experienced the magnificence of nature and walked the trails and halls of history. What could be anything but wonderful.
Knox heads back to Amsterdam next week!
Knox the Fox loves to share your trips so share yours with susan@knoxtntoday.com.