June 8 – Colorado Springs and Denver
This morning began at our campsite next to the Great Sand Dunes. We had an incredible morning view seeing the sunrise over the mountains onto the national Park. Once we had coffee it was time to hit the road! The itinerary for today was to get to the Royal Gorge Bridge, the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, see Pikes Peak, then have brunch in town. Afterwards, we were to go to Denver to meet with my cousin who I had not seen in over 20 years! Then of course….. try some of the Legal Devils herb ;).
We started off pretty early and our first stop was to see the Royal Gorge Bridge near Pueblo. This bridge stretches over a 2000 foot deep canyon and is a marvel to witness and wonder how it was built. However due to time and budget reasons we only saw it from a distance, and didn’t want to pay the $25 per person entry fee to walk across it! We decided to utilize the overlook parking lot, and walk out to the cliff to see this bridge from a relatively far distance.
PROTIP– This bridge can be seen from the overlook parking lot, which is free to use, as of the writing of this blog. The Bridge itself can be walked, but for a large fee of $25 per person!
After soaking up the cliff views and a few short hikes we decided it was time to head to Colorado Springs. We ended up getting to the city by 11am and had a great breakfast. We ate at the Urban Egg Eatery, which was right in the heart of Colorado Springs. Aside from this, we didn’t really get to see the city that much but evidently there is an Air Force Base there and overall it is a very pretty town which sits on the outside of Rocky Mountains right before the country starts to get flat to the east in Kansas.
After brunch we headed to the Garden of the Gods which feature huge red rock formations coming up right out of the ground. This park is free to walk through and has many animals and foliage throughout the rocks formations. It is a very popular spot and usually it’s hard to find parking, however we were able to grab a spot just in time before the parking lot was completely full. I highly recommend seeing this place while visiting, as you can see great frontal views of Pikes Peak as well!
PROTIP- Make sure to arrive before noon to this area, as the parking lot can be full by that time. This area is great since you can see the whole place in under half an hour, and gain an appreciation for these massive unique rock formations in Colorado.
From here, it was time to head to Denver to meet up with my cousin who I had not seen since I was eight years old (which was about 20 years prior). We met up at a brewery, met his fiancé and enjoyed some local craft beers. This brewery was recommended by him, called Joyride, and it was next to a nice city park we visited to relax. From here we went to dinner after stopping at a pot shop.
This was an experience in itself as we are from Florida and during the writing of this message recreational Marijuana is currently illegal in Florida (unfortunately). Colorado, as everyone knows now, is open for legal business.
When you walk in to cannabis shops, you need your ID and need to explain what kind of a high you want to have and they will set you up with the proper supplies. It’s not necessarily illegal to smoke in public but frowned upon. So we took it out into the public park and hid behind a tree near a lake and really enjoyed the scenery and the vibe of Denver. This was a great experience, and as you can imagine we were very hungry, thus after a little research we ended up going to a steakhouse called The 801 Chophouse.
Ashley seemed to think this was the best steak we had the whole trip, if not ever. We had a lot of steak and I beg to differ about her opinion but the steak was very good and I highly recommend this restaurant!
One of the secrets of doing this trip efficiently, was telling everybody about what we were going to do in such a way that they wanted to help. My mom contributed $300 for the trip in the form of gift cards and credits to help us out for groceries and hotels. This allowed us to spend one night in Denver at Motel 6 using a $100 credit she gave us. This used up the full amount to the penny, and we essentially stayed for free and thus keeping our streak alive of stays without paying for a hotel. This concludes the day, and we were to continue further west from here out, heading to Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow!
Expenses
10.08 gas
30.50 brunch Colorado Springs
28 bar with Jesse (cousin)
60 dinner steakhouse
(100 comped) hotel Motel 6
20 tip at steakhouse
12 Weed
Total 191.08
Great Sand Dunes To Denver – MILES DRIVEN – 265