Road trip to Colorado Springs

[uintahiker]

Took a trip to the Colorado Springs area last week. Had a great time (car) camping and seeing the sights. Here's a few pictures from the trip. Some of the stopping points were the paint mines, Garden of the Gods, Manitou Springs, Florissant Fossil Beds, the Great Sand Dunes, and a few waterfalls and random other spots along the way.

Picture list
1. The Calhan Paint Mines. 30 miles or so east of Colorado Springs. The indians used to come here to get the color for their ceremonial paint and decoration. It kindof reminded me of a little goblin valley, but with more varied color.

2. An abandoned railroad tunnel just outside of Manitou Springs.

3. Garden of the Gods. Cool, but southern Utah beats it any day.

4. The Big Stump at Florissant. I was surprised that the visitor center only had a few dozen fossils. Other than the fossilized tree stumps, this was kindof a let down. If you look closely at the picture, you can see 2 broken saw blades where people tried to saw it up into pieces.

5. Iron Spring in Manitou Springs. There's almost a dozen springs in town that you can walk to and taste. The cool thing is they're all carbonated. I liked the colors of this one, but its water is nasty.

6. An old tunnel on Gold Camp Road in Colorado Springs

7. Zapata Falls near the Great Sand Dunes. Definitely a cool waterfall. It's in a slot that's about 50 feet long.

8. More of the paint mines.

9. The Great Sand Dunes. They're bigger than you think, and harder hiking than you'd think. I hiked to the top of the 2nd tallest one for this picture.