Hello All... Hope ya'll are doing good. It is a Sunday morning & I have nothing much to do today...I am just lazing around with a hot cup of coffee in hand. My creative juices are flowing in & I thought what better way to utilize this opportunity than to write a blog on the spectacular state of Colorado.
Summer is fast fading away into the oblivion & there are just few days to let out the wanderlust before winter beckons...yes "Winter is coming" 😉
With the fall season fast approaching I feel that there is a reason that they call it fall season. Not just because the leaves fall off from the trees but also your morale, Energy, enthusiasm everything falls off & the depression feeling sets in with the winter ;)
Anyways enough of ranting about the weather coming back to the trip blog...
So yeah, off late machine learning has made our lives so easy... The other day I just happened to play one of Elvis Presley's numbers on YouTube & the next thing you know, YouTube identified the genre & the user interests & started playing some amazing tracks back to back that took me back to my school times. A true nostalgic feeling...
The reason I am talking about machine learning is because I experienced a lot of it in this trip to Colorado. Just a day before my trip I was completely immersed in work & i had forgotten that I am on a vacation from the next day.
Ungroomed (don't know if this is even a word 😉 ) , with almost 1 inch long beard I was typing away like a keyboard warrior ;) "Tring Tring" there was a google notification. Apparently Gmail's Machine learning algorithm parsed through the flight confirmation & hotel confirmation email & identified that I have a flight to catch the next day. Google added the event on to my google calendar & sent me a notification. I was amazed at the technology at the same time I had to stop doing what I was doing & had to get going with grooming myself & preparing for the oncoming trip... yeah machine learning makes things so easy :)
The Plan... One of my friend visited Colorado & I happened to see the pictures he posted on Facebook & it was love at first sight 😉 with Colorado that is ;) I wanted to visit the place right from that instance & experience the amazing landscapes the place had to offer.... Since summer was almost coming to an end, I had just few weeks left to utilize the summer as much as possible. We had a long weekend coming up, so, I decided to travel & explore Colorado...
Colorado...
Colorado state, situated on the western side of U.S houses some of the diverse & spectacular natural landscapes... The diverse landscapes include the tall rocky mountain ranges in the north & desert landscapes in the south with some canyons, Rivers, Gorges & cliff dwellings in between... The best way to explore the length & breadth of Colorado is by being on the road, i.e., just driving & experiencing the natural beauty this state has to offer... Since Road tripping is a big thing in Colorado, the rental business has some cut-throat competition & you can get some really good deals on rental cars.... I saw many bikes on the road too.. This must be a biker's paradise.....
Road Tripping in paradise....
As I mentioned earlier, the rental car system in the state of Colorado is just amazing... As soon as we got off from the flight at the Denver airport there was a shuttle that took us directly to the rental office & we were provided with the car within minutes... the system is very streamlined & hassle free.... Add a layer of machine learning on top of it & it is just wow! as soon as I got into the car & opened google maps & google started suggesting me that i need to drive to my hotel & I just had to click go that's it, such feasibility ;) I hope Google also in the future downloads the offline maps so that I don't have to worry about being lost in remote mountain areas due to lack of network connectivity :)
So below was the map of all the places we had planned to visit & happened to visit... In Colorado it is not just the final destination but the journey itself that creates an awe inspiring feeling..
not once did we get bored of travelling 1000+ miles... the landscapes just kept inspiring & mesmerizing us, 1000 miles of pure driving pleasure :)
Garden of The Gods... Our first stop in Colorado was the Garden of the Gods. We drove in straight from the airport & reached the place around 10AM. The place consists of large sandstone formations surrounded by mountain peaks... We hiked a bit to reach some of the places in the garden... Overall a great experience
Pikes Peak
So this was the next destination for the day. We hopped on to the Cog rail & headed off to the peak. The Journey to the top was too long & slow but the charm of the peak took that all away.. Here are few pics from the trip...
Cripple Creek Cripple creek is more of a camping place.... it is a valley nestled between the mountains at an elevation of 9000 feet. We stayed here for a night just to experience the beautiful surroundings..... Unfortunately I forgot to click pics of the place Since I was busy admiring the place ;)
Great Sand Dunes National park Our next stop was The Great sand dunes national park. The Park consists of 330 sq mile of sand deposits eroded from the mountains....The sand deposits give the landscape a desert like feeling... Since we reached the place at noon the sand got really hot. However, there are streams of water flowing around the dunes. We immersed our legs in the cold streams to cool off :) This place is surrounded by few hiking trails & people usually spend 2-3 days exploring this place... however since we had time constraints we just visited the main attraction i.e., the sand dunes & headed back...
The drive to this place is simply spectacular.... it brought back the memories of my trip to Leh... the landscape was amazing....If you want to experience the spectacular landscapes do drive from Cripple creek to sand dunes....
Royal Gorge Bridge & park Next up on our list was Royal Gorge bridge & park. There is a huge gorge between 2 mountains & there is a river flowing underneath. The 2 peaks are connected via a bridge & there are ziplines & cable car connecting the peaks too..... I happened to spot people rafting below.. what amazing view they must be having :) The cable car ride also called Gondola was included in the entry fee to the park.... Wifey wanted to experience the zipline but I chickened out due to my fear of heights ;) such a loser... We just took the cable ride both ways. The overall experience was good & a must visit place while in Colorado....
Miles Check - We had almost driven 500+ miles by now but weren't bored or tired at all. The natural beauty just kept on surprising us 🙂 Just look at these pics aren't they just WOW 🙂
Vail, Co Our next stop in the trip was Vail. Vail is basically for people interested in skiing. However, while doing some research I also stumbled on the fact that the drive to Vail was simply beautiful hence we opted to visit Vail. We stayed in a small town consisting of 270 people called Redcliff. Overall the drive & the stay was very good 🙂 While driving to Vail we also visited the cave dwellings
Rocky Mountain National Park
The Rocky Mountain range extends right from Alaska to the southern border of U.S . Covered by Alpine trees the drive through this national park dawns a feeling of adventure, Excitement & Awestricken... We heard about the tourist rush & how parking gets full early at the peak. Hence, we decided to start early & explore the mountains at its entirety.
As soon as we entered the park we were handed the map of the park. We had planned to visit the Horseshoe park, Alluvial Fan, Bear lake & Alpine visitor center . The drive through the mountain was refreshing. Alpine visitor center is located at a high point & the drive through the narrow roads & alongside deep gorges makes the drive to the visitor center an adventurous experience.
While at the visitor center there was a trail to the peak. After an exhilarating walk through the trail with bare minimum oxygen we reached the peak & clicked some awesome pictures of the surroundings. All in all it was a great experience....
Downtown Denver After exploring the natural wonders that Colorado had to offer it was time for us to explore the manmade wonders ;) We heard a lot about 16th street & visited the place... The walk through the 16th street was a great experience. I also spotted my previous employer's building near the 16th street, nostalgia :)
So this completes the humongous writeup about this beautiful state... even this enormous writeup does not make justice to the beauty Colorado has to offer... So if you are in the U.S make sure you visit this paradise.... Until next time, Ciao :)
