We woke up bright and early on day 4 in Pueblo, CO packed our bags up and headed out to Canyon City, CO. We had a big day planned that started with a White Water Rafting Trip down the Arkansas River. We met at the Echo Canyon River Expedition headquarters in the heart of Canyon City, then they shuttled us to the river. Along the route, they prepped us with all the safety information, including what to do if you fall out. They had us all a little nervous, but overall it was a fairly mild trip. No one fell out and none of the boats in our group even got close to tipping. With this being our first rafting trip and Kyler only being 8, we stuck with the beginner & intermediate levels I, II, & III. We had a blast! This was definitely something everyone will remember!
Kyler found this giant rock at the rafting headquarters and had to have a picture with it. :)
After our adventures on the water, we swung by the Royal Gorge there in Canyon City as well. We didn't have time to enter the park, but we at least can say we've seen it. They had a zipline and a gondola that crossed the gorge. A skycoaster on one side, plus you can walk across the gorge on the largest suspension bridge in the US. We'll definitely be back. Canyon City in general had a lot of fun things to see, including a prison tour. We were all impressed and hope to visit again one day when we can spend more time there.
After our adventurous morning, we hoped in the car and drove a few hours north to Colorado Springs where we had tickets to ride the Cog Railway up to the top of Pikes Peak. Our hotel was up by the Air Force Academy, so we opted to just tour around the Pikes Peak area before our train ride and just check into the hotel late that night. I had planned to visit Garden of the God's the next morning, but even with all that we had planned we were able to check it out before our train ride. I would have liked to have had more time to hike here, but we were glad we saw it when we did so we could sleep in a little the next day.
Visitor Center Fun....Check out this view! The red rock formations look so tiny from here!
More trick photography :)
Garden of the God's was magnificent! The natural creations of these rocks are hard to capture in pictures, they were much more grand in person. We drove through the park and stopped at the lookout spots, where the kids climbed until we had to pull them down, LOL! Not really, but we did cut it short in order to prevent anyone from getting majorly injured. They loved climbing and running from rock to rock!
Oh hey Levi, thanks for the photobomb :)
We had a 5:30 departure on the Cog Railway, but arrived quite a bit early. It sprinkled on us a bit, but not too bad luckily!
Up, up we go!
It was an hour drive up the mountain, the first half was mostly trees but then as we got higher we had amazing views. We spotted some marmots playing in the rocks, a well.
Once we arrived, we were surprised to actually be quite dizzy. There are signs everywhere warning you about altitude sickness, so we took Dramamine, but it didn't seem to help. It was also freezing cold!! We knew it would be cold, but didn't realize how cold! Brrrr...Lex was not prepared :)
On top of the world!!
The train stopped at the top for about an hour. There is a visitors center at the top, with a gift shop, snacks shop, and some information about Pikes Peak to read. We spent quite a bit of time in here, sitting, resting and window shopping. Mostly because it was cold, but also because we were quite dizzy. The kiddos each got some Altitude Donuts, which are some kind of special donut that can only be made at high altitudes. Kyler thought it tasted like a churro, cinnamon & sugar, yum!
And that's a wrap for day 4. We were all tired and almost fell asleep on the ride back down the mountain. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and crashed at the hotel.
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