Colorado Day 2

Colorado Rocky Mountain High

Let me tell you all, the second day of our honeymoon here in Manitou Springs has been incredible. We woke up early to start our day with breakfast at Uncle Sam’s Pancake House in downtown Manitou. It’s a quaint little diner with wonderful atmosphere and incredible food. They’re a giant, plate-sized pancake kind of place, but I elected for the more standard size of pancakes so I wouldn’t have an upset stomach as we planned to head up the mountain in a few hours. Service was incredible and very friendly. With full bellies, we left for our next stop, only to realize that we were well ahead of schedule and the Manitou Cliff Dwellings did not open for another hour.

With that information, we decided to explore Manitou Springs a little bit. Yet another (literal) roadblock would come next, however, as we learned that pretty much the entire town was shut down for the Pikes Peak Marathon. We knew when planning our trip that the marathon was happening at the same time as our presence, but not even the locals knew every road in town would be closed! This worked as a blessing in disguise in the long run as we were able to explore nearby towns and attractions that were not originally on our itinerary.

Note the massive wind chimes!

The first of these unplanned stops was at the Cave of the Winds, more accurately, the winding road and parking lot to access it. On a whim, we traversed the mile long, steep graded road up to the parking lot/outlook for the Cave of the Winds attraction. It made for some absolutely stellar views!

A really sweet stranger noticed our honeymoon graphics and came up to us as we were exploring and taking photos, offering to capture of few of us together. Obviously, we took her up on it! With way too many photos taken of all the scenery, we decided to venture over to the Cliff Dwellings, having wasted enough time to reach their opening hours. Anna absolutely was terrified of the grade going down, but in my humble opinion, it was nothing. It was steep, sure, but I was right at home remembering my days of country driving in Pennsylvania when I went to tech school. Below are a couple of videos showing that short section of road.

Having let Anna cool off from her short altitude induced panic attack, we entered the Manitou Cliff Dwellings for an otherworldly experience! Truly impeccable craftsmanship in these centuries old terracotta brick structures built into the rockface. There was so much fascinating history to be read, felt, and explored firsthand.

For your collective nerdy viewing pleasure, I captured nearly 8 minutes unedited of my exploring the structure. At least, everywhere my hunky modern American build could fit.

Then it was finally off to the Broadmoor, Manitou, and Pikes Peak Cog Railway! Our first journey by train of our decidedly train themed honeymoon was about to commence.

Then it was finally off to the Broadmoor, Manitou, and Pikes Peak Cog Railway! Our first journey by train of our decidedly train themed honeymoon was about to commence. The cars were a tight squeeze and fully loaded, but the excitement quickly negated any potential discomfort. We sat across from a lovely couple from Kansas and we got up to talking about everything from economics, geopolitics, digital cameras, and relationships. They were a great people to share the ride with. I took way too many photos on our way up the summit. Over 2500 photos, in fact. That was only on my camera! I still don’t know how many my lovely wife took. What a journey though! It was slow, calm, but also exciting with the humorous narrations from our conductor Ethan. It may be scripted, but it’s still funny stuff.

We made it to the summit, sitting comfortably at 14,115 feet. Now that’s the Rocky Mountain High that we came to Colorado for! They say the 60% oxygen would make it hard to breathe and that the summit would be freezing. I found it easy to breathe and the temperature was nice and cozy sitting around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course we stopped for some of the special high altitude donuts. I thought they were just okay, nothing special, but when in Rome… We had just enough time at the summit to take some nice photos, unfortunately many of which were oversatured due to the constantly changing cloud cover and the time crunch to reboard the train causing me to forget my UV filter. Thankfully, I took so many that it doesn’t matter how many bad ones there are, there are some great ones to look at regardless. Besides, what does it matter if a photo is bad if it conveys the memory? The only disappointment was that every penny machine at the Cog and the summit was marked as out of order! I want my souvenir copper slugs of formerly US currency, dammit!

Back at the bottom, we decided it was time for supper! Our original plans for the Airplane Restaurant crashed and burned when some recent reviews show undercooked, overpriced meat. It all worked for the best though because we stumbled upon a rather unfortunately named local restaurant, Mother’s Muff. Don’t let the unsettling name fool you, this place is worth a visit! The food was downright perfect, a saving grace for this area after the disappointment that was our reservation at Paravincini’s the night previous. I decided to break the pattern at ordered a plate of Chicken and Waffles tonight with a delicious topping of brown sugar glazed bananas. I’d say it was the most comforting blend of sweet and savory flavors that I’ve ever had. Anna’s BBQ burger left me drooling even with a full belly from my own meal. The sweet potato fries were a perfect crisp. If we could have dreamed of having dessert, I’m sure it would have knocked my socks clean off.