My wife and I were able to double-dose a vacation and a work trip again this year. When the National Association of Agricultural Agents (NACAA) has its annual meeting somewhere unique, I love the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
Continuing education and networking mixed with a chance to see some new parts of our beautiful country is a no-brainer. This year’s NACAA meeting was held in Denver, so who would want to miss this? So, we ditched our teenagers and went west.
I have been to Denver a couple of times in the past few years, so this was a great chance to look deep into some areas that needed exploring.
My wife had never been to Red Rocks or seen Golden, Colorado,
so we hit both of those right after we got off the plane.
Red Rocks isn’t just a music venue; it is a park with trails and museums centered on the most amazing amphitheater. It blends geology, ecology, and history into a human experience.
Before Pietro Satriano (1906), the Beatles (1964), Jimi Hendrix (1968), and John Denver (1973) played a tune, nature had to form two enormous sandstone monoliths that were perfect for building an acoustic setting that took 300 million years to form. And the cool part of Red Rocks is that it's available to anyone just to wander around the whole place unless there is an act performing.
The rock formations are literally Georgia red clay red. You can see them from miles away, and the designers of the park were genius in the way they used the form of the land to build a winding road, trails, pavilions, a museum, and of course the amphitheater itself that is available to enjoy year-round whether your favorite band is playing or not.
Google Maps sent us south to Colorado Springs to check out more of God’s amazing creations. Colorado Springs is incredible. The place is a mixture of an old gold mining community, the U.S. Air Force Academy, one of the finest hotels in the world, amazing rock formations, and in the background is “America’s Mountain,” Pike’s Peak.
We journeyed through the Garden of the Gods, which is a free park to drive, walk, or bike where tectonic forces uplifted red sandstone to form an amazing geologic display. The 1,300-acre park was donated to the City of Colorado Springs in 1909 with the condition that it remains a free public park in perpetuity.
The park has a unique story in its naming. In 1859, surveyors exploring the area weren’t aligned on what to call these rock formations. One of the explorers thought it would make a great beer garden when Rufus Cable famously said that the amazing rock formations were “a fit place for the gods to assemble,” and the name Garden of the Gods stuck. As much as I like beer and gardens, Mr. Cable hit the nail on the head.
My mother-in-law worked out a deal to get Kim and me a room at the Broadmoor for our anniversary. I had explored the Broadmoor a couple of years ago when my son was touring the Air Force Academy, and I had immediately said it was hands down the nicest resort I have ever seen in my life.
This five-star destination is incredible. With nearly 800 acres of manicured landscaped grounds, the arboretum kept me stopping regularly to see what western tree or shrub was gracing this magnificent landscape. And yes, I am still a tree nerd on vacation.
The resort is tucked into the Cheyenne Mountains, so most of the resort is surrounded by the mountains. The man-made lake in the center of the property is appropriately called Cheyenne Lake.
While walking the two-thirds-mile path around Cheyenne Lake, I was able to check out the labeled ornamental plants in the arboretum, along with trout the size of your leg swimming, hundreds of bream beds in the shallows, and eight mute swans paddling about.
Swans are the largest waterfowl in the world. Next to the mallards also on the lake, these graceful birds look like WWE Superstars. One of the swans was a mother and had one little guy that is called a cygnet. I watched from a distance, knowing that if you messed with the fluffy little cygnet, this momma swan would make a goose attack look like a pillow fight.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Red Rocks and Garden of the Gods make trip unforgettable | Exclusive
