Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Jake violated two of his most basic rules today. His rules are; 1) Never venture out to see the sights while on a business trip and 2) Never exercise unless someone is chasing after you.

While on a business trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jake's boss Mr. Peabody badgered him into going for a "short run". The weather is so nice Mr. Peabody stated. Jake finally acquiesced and figured that a short run couldn't possibly do too much damage. After all, Mr. Peabody is 10 years older than Jake. So they loaded into the car to drive to a nice little running path that Mr. Peabody knew about.

Mr. Peabody ended up driving to the Garden of the Gods which is a public park in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It contains numerous trails for hiking, walking, biking and horseback riding. As soon as they started running, Jake knew that he had made a rather large mistake. Apparently, Colorado Springs is at a slightly higher elevation than Alabama where Jake is from. And apparently, the air is just a little thinner as you go up in elevation. Jake discovered these laws of physics the hard way. They hadn't been running for more than two minutes when Jake discovered that his hands were all tingly and he was having a harder than normal time breathing. Jake's first thought was to use the old, "Ouch, I twisted my ankle" trick. Mr. Peabody was watching him pretty closely though, so Jake had no choice but to keep running.

Did I mention that the multi-use trails are also used for horseback riding? Apparently horse owners are not held to the same standard as dog owners and several incidents occurred during the trail running. An hour later when the run was nearly finished, it was all that Jake could do to crawl on his hands and knees back to the car. As he slowly made his way back to the car, Jake did however take a moment to notice the beauty of the Garden of the Gods. The beauty and wonder of the moment was only somewhat dulled by the incessant encouragement that Mr. Peabody shouted at Jake to continue running. Yes, Jake has learned his lesson and will go back to following his normal rules. Sometimes we just need a gentle little reminder of why we made the rules in the first place.

If you would like to visit the Garden of the Gods (Hopefully at a leisurely pace), here is the official website.

Check out the location of the Garden of the Gods on this map of places we've been.

Other Colorado Springs Attractions

• Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway (Colorado Springs)
• Garden Of The Gods (Colorado Springs)
  
• Manitou Springs (Manitou Springs)
  
• Mount Cutler Hiking Trail (Colorado Springs)
• Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs)
• Ghost Town Museum (Colorado Springs)
  
• Helen Hunt Falls (Colorado Springs)
• Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (Colorado Springs)