Royal Gorge Park and Pikes Peak, Colorado (June 9-11, 2011)

We have had better days. Two days ago, we decided to go visit the Royal Gorge Park. All the guides have noted this park to be worth visiting. In our opinion, it is very overrated and quite expensive (we paid $ 42 with a coupon of $ 8.00). It is a place where it might be interesting to go if you have kids, but when you are two adults, having a petting zoo, a so-called wild animal reserve and a reconstructed mining town is a little bit boring. Maybe we have seen too many beautiful things and are becoming difficult to please... That may be the case... The view from the bridge is pretty nevertheless.

After the visit to the park, we decided to ride on the Gold trail byway. However, the trail was not paved. After riding a few kilometers on it, I was not feeling that comfortable and told Alain I wanted to turn around. I know I have disappointed him this time, but the road was very narrow, winding and climbing. I was just wondering what to expect next and was concerned I would fall. In addition, I felt it was not a good day for me for riding. Some days, everything goes smoothly and other days, I can be tense on the bike. This was an off day for me and  just did not want to push my luck.

At the end of the day, we ended up in a KOA Campground in Colorado Springs. We would not recommend it. The tent site they allocated to us was extremely dusty. They had warned us that there were some landfill taking place very close to the tent sites. We just did not expect it to be that bad. We had trucks driving on a dirty road 15 feet behind our tent ! Just imagine the cloud of dust every time one drove by. We would have understood if the campground had been full, but this was not the case. They could have given us another site or offered a discount for the inconvenience. Nothing ! They do things ''by the book''. This is awful customer service ! KOA Campground are usually more expensive than other campgrounds, but they are always very clean, have WIFI, have a laundry room, and we think that they are the extra money. You get good value for your money ! We had an excellent KOA campground in Gunnison and Yosemite. Needless to say that both Alain and I were in a faul mood !

Therefore yesterday morning, we moved to another campground, quiet, much nicer. We set up, took a nap to compensate from the previous night and after decided to ride up Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is situated at 14100 feet. It is not the highest mountain in the US, nor even Colorado. But it is arguably the most imposing high peak and probably the most famous. The view from the top is magnificent. However, another myth has been dissipated. When you talk to bikers, you get the feeling that Pikes Peak is a real difficult ride. We did not think so. Of course, there are not many guards on the side of the road, but the road is paved almost all the way and it is very wide. We are still happy to have been up there !

Today, we are NOT On the Road Again ! We need a day for catching up with the blog, doing the laundry, cleaning the motorcycles, reading our books, walking a little bit and just taking our time. A day for not visiting something new !
 
These are the cactus flowers we saw on the short walk of today...  Pretty, huh ?