Weekend in Canyon City (Echo Canyon) June 10th-11th

We got up super early to go rafting up in Echo Canyon.

It took us a good two hours to get there and our trip was

supposed to be a three hour raft trip...float trip really.

However since the rivers have been so high and fast lately

our three hour trip really only lasted about an hour.  We

weren't supposed to hit any rapids but did hit a few little

ones, enough for the girls to enjoy.  They wanted to go on

the other rapids after that.  They really enjoyed their trip.

Since our trip was over so quickly, we took the rest of

the day to head about a mile up the road to a place they

call the Royal Gorge.  It is this huge canyon in the middle

of nowhere.  Amazing that you are driving through these

mountains and then all of a sudden come to such an amazing

and enormous gorge.  Really beautiful to see.  It was

like a park there.  They had rides and games and shows

all around the gorge.  There was this giant swing that

went off the side of the mountain like a bungee swing.

We didn't go on it because it was about $25 a person

but Haley really thought it looked cool.  She is insane! 

 Auntie with the girls at the bottom of the gorge.  The water

was moving sooooo fast.  It was incredible to see the intense

rapids all the way down the river.

 Going back up the tram from the bottom of the gorge was

almost worse than going down the tram. 

 There was a suspension bridge you could cross to get to

the other side.  Kelly practically ran across the thing.  It was

a little scary because the wind was blowing hard through the

canyon and the wood planks have spaces between them so

you can look down on the water below.  They also had

flags for all the states along the bridge.  I am not sure why

but I had to get a picture next to Hawaii anyway!

 On the other side of the bridge they had a little

mining town set up and TP's from the Arapaho

Indians.  They had games to play and mining and

even a gun show fight in the middle of the street.

Not really the highlight of the park!

 We camped in a tent that night and had our first real

camping experience.  The girls have never set up a tent

or made smores on a fire before.  It was a lot of fun for

them.  The annoying thing was that the people across the

way from us had this nasty cat that kept coming over to

our campsite and trying to sit on us and get in our tent.

The girls kept touching it and it just made me cringe. 

 Before we went on the camping trip we stopped at the

store and found these enormous marshmallows.  I have

never seen such huge marshmallows before.  They were

so big they just got everywhere when you bit into them.

Seriously the size of your fist!

 Lazy bones cuddling with Auntie while mom made our

breakfast and cleaned up camp.  Who makes you check

out by 10am anyway?  That is crazy!

 On our way home we stopped in a place near

Colorado Springs called Manitou Springs.

We stopped because they had original Indian

cave dwelling homes there in the rocks.  We

learned a lot about their way of life, the plants

they used for medicine and herbs and saw some

pictures of the pueblo that has been there for

almost two hundred years.  Pretty cool.

 The spaces and doors were tiny...as you can

see.  Glad I didn't live then.  An entire

family lived in one little space together, or should

I say slept.  There wasn't room for much else.

It was a fun weekend exploring the mountains

of Colorado!