Day 20: Cascade to Rocky Mountain National Park, CO via Denver

An early morning rooster crowed our wake up call after a second night at Lone Duck Campground at the base of Pike’s Peak. Our early start meant that we had time today to do something that everyone would like.

Our first stop upon arriving in Denver was a visit to Hammond’s Candy Company for a factory tour. This is the largest handmade candy company in the USA, specializing in candy canes and lollipops. While the tour was short, we saw all the important things. We saw the ingredients boiling in the copper cauldrons and being poured on the cooling tables. We saw the candy being pressed, cut and stretched. We saw candy being weighed, packaged and labeled. We were also treated to a free sour apple lollipop! Yum!

Yes, I am actually the colour of a lobster after our time outside yesterday. More sunscreen for me is needed at these mountain elevations.

Next on our journey was a stop for Daddy at New Belgium brewery, home of one of the original sour beers La Folie. We enjoyed flights of both regular and sour beers. My favourite was the Mango IPA, while Ian liked the sours. My least favourite was the Cherry Kreik which to me tasted like poop covered donkey hoof clippings smell - revolting. Ian said it tasted delicious to him. We agreed to disagree.

Our final stop was the Howling Cow Cafe located on a dairy farm that smelled a lot like cows - like a lot. While we didn’t get to pet any cute cows, we did get to try milk flights. To the boys who have watched the grown ups try flights of many alcoholic beverages over the past several weeks - they were excited to finally get to partake. The flights included fresh, ice cold whole milk, chocolate milk, root beer flavoured milk, and French toast flavoured milk. We had three votes for chocolate milk and one for French toast. Ian drank coffee instead of milk so he didn’t qualify to vote.

Tonight’s sleeping spot is Moraine Park Campground at Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw wild long horned sheep climbing rocks while driving between the towering canyon walls to get here, elk while going through the entrance gates, and turkeys on the drive to our campsite. I think we scored the best campsite in the park with a fantastic view of the surrounding mountains. Looking forward to some star gazing and a peaceful sleep tonight.

Day 19: Pike’s Peak and Manitou Springs, CO

Today we felt especially blessed to be on this adventure. I think mountains might do that to people. They are majestic and awe inspiring.

Ascending (and descending) Pike’s Peak - the tallest place we have been to with our feet on the ground (elevation: 14,115 feet at the summit) - was somewhat harrowing. The drive up wove through tight switchbacks, often with cliffs on one side. It is unbelievable to me that there is actually an annual event where (crazy) people RACE to the summit. It took us a hour to ascend; the record race time is 7:57 minutes in 2018. Nuts! It was a frosty 7 degrees C on the summit with lots of snow! We tried the summit specialty - cinnamon donuts.

After visiting the summit, we spent the afternoon fishing for trout in the nearby South Catamount Reservoir. This was perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever been. Liam was the fishing master catching the lion’s share of our limit. He even caught a very special brown trout, that despite the boring name in fact has a vibrant scarlet stomach and gorgeous spotted body.

This afternoon was perfect to get the truck’s first oil change at the 7,000 km mark.

We finished the day off with a visit to Manitou Springs to taste test their route of naturally carbonated springs. The occurrence of these springs is once again due to a karst landscape where the underground rivers eroding the limestone hit the Ute fault line and are forced to the surface as natural springs. Interestingly, each spring in Manitou Springs has a different mineral composition, different degree of carbonation, and hence a slightly different taste. We decided that 7 Minute Spring tasted best to us. Our least favourite was Shoshone Spring which had the highest mineral content of the eight springs and draws healers from all over the world seeking out its special waters. It was thought to help people suffering from tuberculosis in the past. We thought it tasted salty but others seemed to enjoy it.

Shoshone spring with some monks partaking

7 Minute spring - our favourite 

Our evening revolved around cleaning fish, doing laundry and everyone taking one last shower as we prepare to roll out of here tomorrow.