Day-Long Adventures in Colorado Springs (aka, how to wear your dogs out!)

Today, we end a travel era in Colorado Springs. In this blog post (and YouTube episode) we take a hiking and driving tour of the Garden of the Gods. We also hike the Helen Hunt Falls trail, visit the Edelweiss German Restaurant and the Territory Days celebration in Old Colorado City!

The End of an Era in Colorado Springs?

This will be the last video where you will see us traveling with our two Boston Terriers. Shortly after we took this trip, we were blessed with the addition of a third Boston Terrier into our family. Louie joined us as a two-year-old from Mid-America Boston Terrier Rescue. Despite what Tommy sometimes says, he has been a welcome addition to our family! We are looking forward to Louie joining our future adventures.

Now Back to Our Main Programming… Driving and Hiking the Garden of the Gods.

Garden of the Gods is one of my favorite places to drive and hike in the Colorado Springs area. There is something about the red rock formations framed by the green trees and blue and white sky and mountains that speaks to me. I could hike and drive and take pictures there for hours! The trail we hiked this trip was a shorter one- the Siamese Twins, which takes you across several rock formations and ends at a small creek that runs through the park. Even though it was a short hike, it was big on great scenery!

Unfortunately, Danny was along with us on this hike, and he does not enjoy hiking and driving and taking pictures as much as I do. Plus there were a lot of people there that day, so the dogs were very quickly overstimulated. But the time that we were able to spend there was very enjoyable, and we will be back to hike a different trail next time.

Helen Hunt Falls

Tommy, Winston and I took this hike ourselves while Danny worked. The Helen Hunt Falls Hike is in the North Cheyenne Canyon Park, just outside of Colorado Springs. The hike to the top of the waterfall is pretty easy. There is also a longer hike that takes you up to the top of the mountain where you can see the entire surrounding area as well as several smaller waterfalls.

This was a really cool hike! Winston said there were lots of sniffs to sniff. Tommy enjoyed the walk beside the creek and the peaceful water sounds. There is one set of steps that is a bit of a challenge both going up and coming down. The steps are pretty tall, so for those of us with short legs- like me and my Boston’s- it was a bit of a challenge to climb them. There is some really loose gravel so it is pretty slick coming down and several times we slid down the hill more than we walked!

Time to Eat, Eat, Eat Our Way Through Colorado Springs!

German Food for Jess…

We partook of some great meals on this trip! One of my favorites was the meal we had at the German restaurant, Edelweiss. The portions were perfect, and the food was delicious. A bonus was the great German music played by the roaming accordion player as we ate. Danny also really enjoyed his German beer flight. He soon realized that German beer is much stronger than American beer, though, and wasn’t able to finish all of it. We highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the Colorado Springs area and love good German food. They require reservations, but it is definitely worth it!

And Street Food for Danny…

Each year, Old Colorado City puts on the Territory Days Festival. Old Colorado City is the oldest part of Colorado Springs, and each year they put on a giant street festival that is filled with various street foods, and vendors selling handmade arts, crafts, pottery and other wares. They have just about anything you can think of there! It was a great place to start my Christmas shopping (start early!) because they have so many different things.

In addition, the street food was delicious. Danny and I both really enjoyed sampling all the different foods they offered. After all that hiking and eating, both the dogs needed a nap!

Let’s End Our Colorado Springs Trip With One Small Hitch…

This trip was one of our first of the year. As such, it was also the advent of our season of the fridge problems. We woke up on the second morning of the trip to find our fridge warm and the lights blinking. Unfortunately, after trying to troubleshoot the problem ourselves and calling a mobile RV repair tech, the problem was still not resolved. As you will see in our upcoming videos, this fridge fight lasted all season long and finally ended with us installing a residential fridge in Lost (our travel trailer’s name) on our last trip of the year. While this fridge doesn’t have the benefit of being able to keep itself cool while unplugged on the road (at least not yet), if we pack it with cold packs and keep the doors closed, the food stays within safe temperatures until we can get plugged back in, and more importantly it works reliably while plugged. Overall we are much better off with our new residential fridge.

So, stay tuned for more of the refrigerator drama in our next few episodes. Also, be on the lookout as Traveling with Terriers goes international… to Canada! In the meantime, be sure to check out our other Travel-A-Long Adventures, Behind-the-Scenes Blogs, relaxing Drive-A-Longs, and our Top 5 Tips and Tricks. Our brand new Merch Store is open! Visit it to find Traveling with Terriers apparel, swag, and our newly released book available now on Amazon. Until next time, happy traveling!