Into Colorado

We left Salina, KS this morning at 9 am, and crossed the prairie of western Kansas. Much of the last 200 miles in KS reminded me of bicycling across the western and central parts of Nebraska – wheat fields with grain elevators every few miles, located along railroad tracks. For several hours it seemed like everything was flat, but then we noticed on the map that we had been steadily climbing since Salina. From Salina to the Colorado border we climbed from 1,200’ to 4,000’ elevation – all so gradually that we didn’t even notice.

The high plains of eastern Colorado were much more rugged than the prairie of KS, with a different sort of beauty. We were still climbing very gradually, but the land around us was changing rapidly as we traveled 150 miles and climbed from 4,000’ at the border to 6,000’ in Colorado Springs. About 75 miles into Colorado we could see Pikes Peak in the distance, dominating the landscape. There was a good bit of cloud cover, and some strong thunderstorms moving through the mountains, so our views were not as spectacular as they might have been. Pikes Peak never left our view as we traveled the final 75 miles to Colorado Springs. When we left NC, we estimated a distance of 1560 miles to Colorado Springs, and set out to drive this in 48 hours. It ended up being a 1606 mile journey, and we made it very comfortably in 47 hours. (The rest of the trip is much less planned! We had to make sure we got to CO in time for our rafting trip on Wed.)

After checking into a Microtel Inn, we drove to see the Garden of the Gods, a park of incredible rock formations that words just cannot describe. This is what I love the most about the western USA – the spectacular geographic features that often arise “out of nowhere.” We will see many more such sights over the next two weeks – canyons, rivers, gorges, mountains, waterfalls and more.

After overeating at a Chinese Buffet, we all resolved to eat better for the rest of the trip. I recovered with Pepto Bismol (thanks for packing this for me, Dana!) and the boys spent 90 minutes in the exercise room followed by time in the pool and hot tub. We are all in great spirits, and really looking forward to the next few days of travel in the mountains.