June 7, 2023
Angel and Carla made it back last night but despite our offer to work, they told us to take the day off. We relented and assured them we would work tomorrow. So we decided to do some touristy stuff. Nancy has been wanting to see cliff dwellings since Arizona. We were going to go when we went to New Mexico in April but those plans just didn’t work out. As we left the campground I spotted a white cloud behind the mountain and it was such a stark contrast, I just had to take a photo. So today we are heading to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. The site is actually an area that was chosen in 1904 to relocate some ancestral Puebloan ruins. These ruins date back to 800 to 1,000 years ago. The ruins came from McElmo Canyon in southwestern Colorado. It is located close to Mesa Verde. These ruins are much easier to explore than the ones in Mesa Verde National Park. It took them 3 years to complete the relocation.
It is a self guided tour with narration if you desire. You can listen at each stop and it explains what you are looking at and why. There are actually signs at each stop also. You can enter the structure and even climb to a second floor if you so desire. Some spots are narrow but I fit through just fine.
After walking through the dwelling we ventured to the Gift Shop/Museum. It was large and covered a few floors. As we were walking back to the truck we could hear distant thunder. This seems to be a recurring theme here.
We decided to go into Manitou Springs for lunch. Nancy had chosen a restaurant and when we got into town we found it a little difficult to find a place to park. We drove through town and then turned around to go back toward the restaurant. We found a spot on the street and took advantage of it. This was still 0.3 mile from the restaurant. We started walking and stopped in front of Manitou Brewing. We looked at the menu to see if this would be a better option. I left the decision up to Nancy. She came up with another restaurant called The Keg. As luck would have it, The Keg was directly across the street so we crossed and went in. Lunch was good. Nancy had a bison burger with blue cheese but it needed mayo. I had one of the specials, Prime Rib Grilled Cheese on Sourdough. It was very good. For me I had to try a local brew. I had an Avalanche Amber. It is a product of Breckenridge Brewing just south of Denver.
We meandered along the shops after we ate lunch. One store we ventured into was a sign shop. What ever your interest, they had a sign for it. I found a few that I found very funny. You can see the pictures and decide for yourself. Also found a few that would describe one or both of our children. Another shop that we just had to stop in was The Candy Bar. They had a wide variety of candies and what I would call “penny candy”. Penny is no longer applicable but I’m old. We did purchase a couple of items of items. They also had a wide variety of truffles. As luck would have it we were parked in front of Josh and John Ice Cream. For several years running they were voted best ice cream. We had to see for ourselves if this was true. We each got a double dipped cone. We can understand why now that it is such a great place. I have not seen such a variety of cones in one ice cream store. The selection was great. After our dessert we weighed our options. We contemplated going to Marimont Castle but as it was getting a little later in the afternoon we will leave this for another day. We opted to take a drive to another attraction in the area. We found Helen Hunt Falls in the North Cheyenne Cañon Park. After a little research I discovered that the falls are named for Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, not the actress. Helen Hunt was a poet and writer and activist for better treatment of Native Americans. We made the short walk up to the top of the Falls. It was a very neat place. Guess what, it started to rain so we headed back to the truck and headed home. I’m starting to see a weather pattern here.
