Colorado Springs is home to the U.S. Olympic Training Center. We decided to visit the place where U.S. athletes go with dreams of making the U.S. Olympic team for the summer games. There is a winter sports training facility in Lake Placid, New York that caters to the training for the winter Olympics sports.
The training center was tucked in an older residential neighborhood. However, the architecture of the buildings is modern and striking to the eye.
This large globe contains a small plaque for each Olympic sport around the base as well as the five Olympic rings. Does Paul have the weight of the world on his shoulders?
Our tour began with a very informative video about the training facility and some of the athletes that train there. After the video, our tour guide took us through the campus. First stop was the athlete dorms and dining hall. Did you know the head chef here has won cooking contests against some of the most notable chefs in the world?
We visited several of the practice facilities. This sign outside this gym pays tribute to the men's and women's indoor volleyball and beach volleyball.
There were multiple courts in the gym. The main court is used for both basketball and volleyball.
The natatorium was actually larger than an "Olympic size" swimming pool. There were 10 lanes. We did not see any of our Olympic swimmers during our visit, although our tour guide said Michael Phelps was in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago.
Caleb, our guide, was pointing out the fitness facility across the walkway.
This fitness facility contained a large assortment of free weights, machines, an indoor running track above the main floor, and a larger track that goes around the main floor and then goes outside towards the west through large doors that can be opened in the warmer weather.
Our Olympic athletes not only gain the skills of their sport here in Colorado but benefit greatly from training at 6000 feet above sea level. We enjoyed seeing the facilities that are available to our Olympic athletes that they can use to get ready for the summer games.
Three years ago when we made our last trip to Grand Teton National Park, we stopped in the Colorado Springs area. We spent a little time at Garden of the Gods Park but vowed we would come back to explore this natural wonder in more depth.
On a warm day, we started out early to beat the heat and took a short drive down I-25 to Garden of the Gods Park. The photo below was taken at the visitors center with Pikes Peak on the left. You can barely see a few patches of snow on America's Mountain.
In 1971, Garden of the Gods was designated a National Natural Landmark. It is easy to see why this is one of the "must see" places in Colorado Springs.
We took a short drive to the parking lot where we would enter the park's most popular hiking trail We strolled along the trail, viewing all the different rock formations, paying attention to their different colors.
This particular tower of stone is called White Rock. The rock is Niobrara and is much lighter in color than most of the other rock formations in the area.
This larger rock formation is called North Gateway Rock. The rock type is Dakota Sandstone and is a dark red in color. The rock looked shiny in the bright sunlight. This is the color of must of the rocks in Garden of the Gods.
This rock formation is called Signature Rock, possibly because of the towers pointing towards the sky.
Sentinel Rock is a rock formation comprised of both Niobrara rock in the left spire and Dakota Sandstone on the right. Paul at 6'1" is standing at the base which gives you an idea that Sentinel Rock is nearly a 100 feet tall. The
various layers in this rock were deposited 275 million years ago. This
was once a stream bed and is now in a vertical position after the
sediments were turned into solid stone. These rocks have continued to
change shapes as water freezes in cracks and wind erodes the soft
sandstone.
The Kissing Camels (see the top center) tower above a field of Brown Eyed Susan wildflowers. The small patch of sky is between the two camels kissing.
We hiked up a trail and had this view looking back towards the various rock formations. Notice how green all the shrubs and trees are. Colorado has had a wet summer compared to what is considered "normal".
Three Graces is framed by green trees and a cobalt blue sky with a few white puffy clouds in the distance.
The Tower of Babel.
Sleeping Giant.
The plaque commemorates the donation of this land to the City of Colorado Springs by the children of Charles Perkins.
The beauty, grandeur and challenge of Pikes Peak has lured people to its summit for hundreds of years. Below, Pikes Peak is seen in the distance, framed by green trees along the trail .
Balance Rock, the most famous formation in the park. Notice how many tourists are here on this summer day.
Climbers are permitted in Garden of the Gods as long as they obtain a permit and have the proper climbing gear. We found this climber coming down the slope. There are companies in this area that would be happy to give us this experience - for money - but we are a little too old for this type of activity.
The only new wildflowers we saw today were these brightly colored Elephant flowers.
We had a good time playing tourist while visiting the Garden of the Gods. We definitely took our time to explore this natural beauty. The rock formations were more awe inspiring in person than our camera could capture.
We took a short drive up I-25 to watch the Denver Broncos training camp practice. The Broncos hold training camp at their regular season practice facility in the Denver suburb of Centennial.
This is the largest of 3 permanent observation/film towers. As you can see from the ad on the side, training camp is held at the UCHealth Training Center. We wonder what the sponsorship cost?
When we arrived, the players were just finishing their warm-up activities and stretching exercises at the far end of the defensive field.
This is a view of the offensive field with shaded VIP seating. You can also see tower #2.
There were several thousand fans in attendance, mostly decked out in Denver orange and blue. Fans were seated on the berms at the one end of the offensive and defensive fields.
The defensive players have just run towards the fans from the stretching area. Some of the players saluted the fans for being there, and the fans responded with a loud cheer. Bum Phillips, the defensive coordinator, is standing with his back to the fans in the end zone waving the players towards him.
#18, Peyton Manning, an obvious future Hall of Famer, works on his footwork. Notice the small portable stand used to film this part of practice.You can see the four QB's in camp. #17 Brock Osweiler is the back-up QB. #2 Zac Dysert is in his 3rd season out of Miami (Ohio) and #3 is Trevor Siemian, a rookie from Northwestern.
Receivers have joined the QB's for a skeleton passing drill.
The QB's and receivers are now throwing towards the near end zone and working on catching the ball inbounds. #88, Demaryius Thomas, is catching this pass while #12 Andre Caldwell watches.
Defensive players are also doing individual type drills. Here the defensive player, #68 Ryan Harris, hits the blue hand-held dummy and jumps up to deflect the white volleyball that has been tossed in the air, which is easier on the players' hands than a football.
This is a photo of an 11-man defensive skeleton drill against only an assistant coach playing QB. The fans cheered when the ball was intercepted and run back towards the fans for a TD.
The offense goes against the defense in an 11 on 11 skeleton drill. The players are wearing shorts instead of full gear so there was no tackling. The ball is thrown by #18 and completed to the receiver running right to left about 20 yards from the line-of-scrimmage.
This Broncos practice was highly spirited, with the players seeming to be enjoying themselves despite the warm morning. The summer sun in the Mile High City is intense. Part of the energy could be because the team has a new coaching staff which had given the players the previous day off. The Broncos are one of the AFC favorites to get to the Super Bowl in February. Time will tell.
We headed back to Colorado Springs to finish our exploration of the North Cheyenne Canyon area. Our hike was along the Lower Columbine Trail which was partially shaded on this warm summer day. The views looking upwards to the top of the canyon were inspiring.
If you look closely, you can see some small tower-like rock formations in the foreground with the rocky canyon wall in the background.
This is a particular example of just how steep the sides of the canyon are as the trail went right next to the rock. We could easily imagine the noise millions of years ago as the rock broke off to make this almost vertical side of the canyon.
Looking across the road we could see a group of tourists learning how to rappel down a rock wall. We did not sign up for this excursion.
The trail followed this stream most of the way. The sounds of the rushing water were almost tempting enough to take off our shoes and socks and cool our feet in the water.
We did spot many new wildflowers along this hike, beautiful late summer bloomers. Here is a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant,
Scarlet Bee Balm,
Fire Cracker,
Wild Geranium or Cranesbill,
Purple Coneflower,
Gay Feather,
Fleabane,
Brown Eyed Susan, and
Gum Weed.
This hike was nice in that the trail was fairly smooth with a gentle uphill trajectory, just strenuous enough to be good exercise. The shade gave us comfort from the warm blazing sun, even though we started before 10am.
