Colorado Springs, CO
Friends trip to Colorado Springs + Denver
Typically, you can find us in the tropics - somewhere with clear beautiful water. We decided to take a bestie trip to the mountains and to see the snow. This trip was in March, which is not the best time to go, but we had a very small window between two of us starting new jobs to make this happen. The weather was nice, but the snow was melting. We actually packed for a full blown winter and ended up having to hit up a thrift shop for some t-shirts because we would sweat during the day.
I'm just going to be honest with you guys - we did NOT do this trip right. Nor did we have a good experience (ha!) It's all on us though, so if you are accustomed to the altitude and the mountains.. don't come for me.
We flew from Gulfport (ground zero, kidding but seriously maybe 19ft ASL) to Denver 5,200ft ASL which was fine, but the first thing we did was grab a drink and pasta from the first cute restaurant we saw. This was around 11am and our Airbnb check in was not until 4pm. The waiter recommended a few things we shouldn't miss out on - one being Pike's Peak. The drive was two hours up and two hours down so we thought.. hey, this would be perfect to kill some time before check in, but also knock off the top of our bucket list item. WRONG!
You guys... Pike's Peak sits at 14,115ft above sea level and we drove up to it the DAY we landed from flat ole Mississippi. On our way up, our friends were passing in and out from the back seat, I was nauseous and dysfunctional. Luckily, my husband was doing okay and we made it to the top, but by then we were all so sick nobody was talking - we all just had this look in our eye at each other.. and we all knew. We jumped back in the car and started driving down and by the time we checked into our Airbnb us girls were dunzo. Finite. By the next morning, it was so much worse - like a constant car sickness you can't shake and your brain just isn't working like it should. Altitude sickness... it's no joke. We went ahead and pushed through the things we set out to accomplish, such as a day trip to Denver. I will list the best parts below!
Red Rocks Amphitheater
The Human Bean Coffee Shop
Garden of the Gods (easy, flat trail)
Yummy flaming meatballs at Shame & Regret (a back alley treasure)
Drinks at 54Thirty Skybar
Dierks Whiskey Row
Buzzbutton flower shots (5 minute numbing)
Incredible Pad Thai at Aloy Modern
and the top of our list.. dinner at Cowboy Star
Our trip was only four days and apparently you should take three days of acclimating before going up a mountain so take it from me - don't do what we did! Altitude sickness has you so sensitive that where we rode around was 5,000ft and our Airbnb was 8,000ft that just going from downstairs to upstairs I blacked a time or two. Thank God we had a stunning Rocky Mountain view when we wanted to take it easy.
We did get some cute photos though - what a beautiful place on Earth.
