Two Weeks of a Lady's Life in the Dramatic Landscapes of Colorado and Utah

This is the second instalment of a recent road trip. You can read the first one here:

Fountain was our first stop. The KOA was adequate: the pool by my boys' and husband's assessment better suited for younger kids but the facilities provided us with what we needed. With the dawn came hunger and the need to get some supplies. We had linens but the cabins had no means to do any cooking, never mind it not being allowed. So, it was time to get some rudimentary kitchenware and food to provide us with lunches on our day trips.

But first: breakfast. We consulted the all-seeing oracle, Google, and it transpired there was an IHOP (International House of Pancakes) just a hop away. It was early, our body clocks all out of synch. from the jet lag so we were virtually the only customers. Pancakes, American-style, were just the sort of fodder weary travellers needed before exploration of their new environs and we were soon served stacks of light, fluffy golden circles, daubed with fruit and cream substitute and, for some, a trickle of syrup.

Refills of coffee revived as did a pint of apple juice, still mindful of our Denver Airport volunteer's words of hydration. We felt good: no headaches and a flush of excitement at territory undiscovered being on the horizon.

We found a Walmart, conveniently only metres away and stocked up and shipped our purchases back to our cabin for stowing. Some sandwiches made and water bottles packed, we decided to go to Garden of the Gods before our PM e-biking experience to check it out.

Mountains. Is there anything more inspiring than mountains? And Lord, how I've missed them. Almost four years living close to the Albertan Rockies in Calgary will do that to you. They are on your mind, wherever you go and rightly so, as they are huge and grey and rugged and beautiful and a statement of Mother Nature's capacity to wow if ever there was one. I used to especially like heading to Safeway and catching the lids of the mountains as I faced west. I never took them for granted.

Mountains reared in the distance. But what Colorado Springs also had was rocks, a taster of what was to come later in the trip provided by the red monoliths of Garden of the Gods, which were clustered in a valley in what appeared to be the suburbs, the geological formations having been there a long time before the neighbourhood, we supposed. Once we had got over our surprise at the Garden's situation, we went to find out about the stones and theories about how they got there as well as their dinosaur, the Theiophytalia kerri, a sort of Stegosaurus without the spines or the belly, that had been unearthed there.

All genned up on rocks and crocs (or their ancestors, at least), we were faced with a dilemma: walk down to the rocks themselves or leave it until later when we would explore them on the back of an e-bike? We decided to keep the element of surprise and had some lunch and a coffee, praying that the black cluster clouds which clung to the mountains would be blown further down the valley to rain on someone else's parade. Uncharitable maybe but we were selfish tourists, seeking the best experience possible on the one day that we had to enjoy this particular place.

It was soon time to rendezvous with our e-bike guide. A gregarious young man originally from Chicago, Tim shared his philosophies, his bad jokes and his knowledge in entertaining fashion while we propelled ourselves with the help of electricity around a park. Multiple photo opportunities presented themselves with Tim encouraging us at every stop to engage in poses, using nature as a backdrop. I'm a recalcitrant Brit at heart, so his enthusiasm at times made me squirm but I attempted to join in with the general good spirit although I have to admit, it was a little overplayed. But hey, he's a guide and he was certainly providing guidance, albeit, at times, unwanted.

We toured the roads around the core of the Garden, bikes not being allowed onto the actual pathways - too much of a hazard. We all managed speeds of 20 to 30 mph that day, mine mainly downhill. I'm a big girl. In a bid to save my blushes (he needn't have bothered), my husband may have underestimated my weight and done me a grave disservice as a result as it meant that my power assistance, geared to a lighter woman, was minimal and my legs were still having to do a lot of the work uphill. As my family disappeared over the horizon, I was partaking in a fair deal of huffing and puffing, although it was, I must admit considerably less than if I had not had a battery to help me.

It was fun. Hot, sweaty fun. The best kind. But it didn't take us into the Garden itself. Sure, there was a lot of awesome views and stone formations like Balanced Rock (see photo of Tim) on the loop that took us around the park but we didn't get into the thick of it. We had seen pictures of tall columns of rock reaching up skywards, nestled in a nook behind white rock faces that daunted and glared brightly in the afternoon sun. I wanted to walk among them.

The storm that had gathered during the day, magnetised previously to the mountain peaks, was now rumbling and making its presence more readily felt as raindrops randomly descended, plopping like watery fruit on heads and darkening the ground. Reluctance was shown by my family to walk but we're here once in this place, disputed to be a playground designed for heavenly beings. I needed to see as much of it with my own eyes and at ground level, not from an overlook.

It was, as I expected. Stone which launches itself from the ground to form stand alone formations - well, they inspire me and reduce me to something which is so much smaller that the person I know myself to be. They make me feel inconsequential compared to their age. They stand, still to this day, despite the bombardments of nature and its indiscriminate attacks as it fires at anything which is not sheltered. Exposed, still they remain. I like the way they make me feel. To walk beside them is a privilege.

This was just a starter of what was to come in terms of Nature's show; the support act, if you will.

Tomorrow would present a new challenge in rock as we were set to climb Pike's Peak. Luckily, Pike knew we were coming...

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