2-12-11 The Hike

It was a glorious morning for a drive down to the Springs, with the angel wing clouds in the morning sun. After so many days this week of snow and slush, this felt really good.

Approaching the Springs, where Pike's Peak dominates the western side of town.

At the main lot in the Garden I snapped a few photos before Deana arrived.

And then we drove around to the Siamese Twins lot to hike about the park. It was unusually quiet this morning.

Why yes, I am a tree hugger. Especially my twisty trees that snake around so sexily.

Then we stopped by the Trading Post and headed for Cripple Creek to check out the ice sculpture festival going on there. Cripple Creek is an old mining town who boasted 10,000 people during the large gold rush there. Now it's officially home to about 1000 people and 1000 gamblers every day. There is almost nothing here but casinos now, but I guess it's fitting for this gold rush town.

This weekend and next they are hosting an Ice Festival with sculptures that, after looking at them, I guessed to be built around a fantasy theme. However, when I got home and looked it up, it was open to any literary influence. And every last one of them chose fantasy. Hmmm.

There was an Alice in Wonderland set with a slide for the kiddies to sled down.

And a really ambitious set that was only just taking shape around Lord of the Rings.

The Ice Orc was the only thing complete when we were there.

But the DJ had set up shop in the midst of the Ice Tower quite nicely.

There was also a very cool dragon, although I'm stuck on which particular tale he's out of.

And there was Peter Pan, still covered in scaffolding.

And Dr. Suess (also fasntastical, I would argue) with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (except without the colors. . . sorry.)

And there was the Star Wars sculpture, which I think kind of bends the rules a bit. . . not technically published as a book except as an adaptation of a script . . . foul!

And hurrah! A Narnia set!

The town itself is filled with historic buildings (now casinos inside) and lots of old ads they keep restoring on the sides of the brick buildings.

11 donkeys roam the town freely, descendants of the animals set loose when they became redundant in the mining operation or a miner went bust and left them there.

One of the pens where the donkeys are occasionally corralled so the kids can pet them is a lot where once a building stood. The back wall is all that remains, even though the second story windows are still intact.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, before they just went with the "Elks Lodge" moniker, still hangs on main street.

Making friends with the pig-bear on the way to lunch.

This is one of my favorites. Your dynamite wasn't handpacked by beautiful soft hands, was it? But I would like some details on the bringing back the dead promise.

Beautiful day, all around. :)