Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs

Since today, after freezing temperatures yesterday, fortunately we had another beautiful sunny day and my time in beautiful Colorado is slowly coming to an end, I had to take advantage of the time to go on one last hiking trip in Colorado and explore the southern part of the state. I am incredibly grateful to have met such an amazing person like Lush. He took the day off today just to show me the beauty of his state one last time. But not only Lush made sacrifices for this trip with approved vacation time: my sacrifice was just as big ;) Because in order to explore southern Colorado in daylight, I actually got up at 6 a.m. in the morning, which is a huge achievement for me, especially since I was at a Halloween comedy show last night.

But it was soooo worth it: Garden of the Gods, the 520 hectare park we visited in Colorado Springs (Colorado's second largest city), is a dream: this unbelievably beautiful park can easily compete with the Rocky Mountains National Park with its red rocks, mountains, and valleys. An absolute dream.

Yes, the background is real!!!!

Lush and I wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't climb on many rocks and explore every corner of the park (okay, almost every corner with 520 hectares, even we would have reached our limits ;))

Afterwards, we spent some time in the town of Colorado Springs and in the 'Old Town' of Colorado, the original city of Colorado. This beauty also impressed me so much... sitting in a city for lunch and seeing unbelievably beautiful mountain formations behind you. It doesn't get much better for me! The enthusiasm for this part of Colorado also puzzles me: where should I go if I win the lottery? Eldorado Springs, or rather Colorado Springs? I hope this question won't keep me up at night too much ;)

But that wasn't enough for two adventurers like us for a successful day: so we drove further in Lush's Mini Cooper to 'Caves of the Winds'. 'Caves of the Winds' is a mountain cave park. These caves are thousands of years old, but were only discovered not too long ago. Both the tour through the caves and the view from the cave park into the mountains were breathtaking. 

I am incredibly grateful to have experienced the beauty of Colorado. I can hardly imagine that any other state will suit me better. 

I am starting to feel sadness creeping in that I will be leaving Colorado tomorrow :(. But it's not just Colorado that I will miss. I will also have to leave behind interesting people like Lush. What fascinates me about traveling is how quickly you can strike up a conversation with strangers. And the best thing among many travelers is that it doesn't just stay at superficial conversation. I realize time and time again how many of us are traveling because we want to find ourselves. Because we want to understand ourselves & the world better and want to see a deeper meaning in everything. The fascinating nature, leaving the comfort zone, and meeting interesting new people can help immensely with that. It is unbelievable to me how deep our conversations with Lush were, even though we hardly knew each other. His book as a farewell gift touched me deeply and is exactly what suits me and what I have always wanted to read. It's amazing how he could assess that. And even though the goodbye hurts, it becomes clear to me: understanding each other on a deep level is not determined by the duration of the acquaintance. We should dare more often to share our deepest thoughts & feelings with strangers. Through that, we can grow infinitely and feel understood.