A while back I wrote Part 1 of my trip to Denver. I traveled so much in October that it’s taking me while to go through my photos and write my blog.

After visiting Bishop’s Castle we drove on to Denver to attend a Scrapbook Expo. Valerie and I had a lot of fun shopping, attending workshops and scrapbooking each evening.

After 2 days of the event we decided to drive up to Fort Collins to visit Valerie’s niece attending college there. The day was dreary and misting rain. On the way there we stopped briefly at the Fossil Creek Reservoir. I had hoped to do some early morning birding but the conditions were terrible.  It did make for a neat scenic photo.

I walked a short paved path to reach the lake. In the trees I heard a Swanson’s Thrush. Sadly the conditions were so bad that I couldn’t see it in the thick foliage it was hiding in.  That’s too bad because it was a new bird for me.

Also along the path I saw a couple birds that were willing to be seen.

When I reached the lake I saw a flock of cormorants feeding. If you look closely several of the birds have fish in their mouths.

I also saw an Eared Grebe. A new bird for me! It’s a terrible photo but it counts!

As you can see the light was extremely poor for photos. It started to rain instead of drizzle so I had to quickly get back to the car. It was so disappointing that I only got to bird here for 15 minutes.

After visiting Valerie’s niece over breakfast we hit the road to go to Colorado Springs. While driving there I checked the internet to see what we could do since we were going to arrive around 2:30 pm.

I found Seven Falls. Looking at the photos online it looked like a great place to visit.  There’s a staircase that follows the waterfalls that consists of 224 steps. 224! We said “let’s do it!”

When we got to Colorado Springs we needed gas. Now we have noticed there’s one main gas station brand you see in Colorado. We couldn’t help but take a photo……

After a quickie fill up at the gas station (hee hee) we arrived at the falls. You walk up a paved path that follows a stream to get to the falls. It’s very scenic.

When we arrived at the base of the falls we saw a tunnel leading to an elevator. I’m not sure how many floors we rode up but it takes you to the top of the mountain so you can see the entire length of the falls.

If you look closely at those photos you can see the stairs along the falls. Yup! We are going to try to climb all those steps!

So we rode the elevator down and headed to the stairs. The sound of the falls was loud but beautiful. We don’t have a lot of water in New Mexico.

We made it half way. Very beautiful!

Only 112 steps to go…

Almost there….

We made it! Just spectacular!

We walked up the path a little ways and found a little bridge that crossed the creek. The view upstream was very pretty with the fall colors.

It was getting late so we decided we better head back. I had hoped we would have had time to hike up to the Midnight Falls upstream but there just wasn’t enough daylight left for the hike. Oh well…maybe I will be back someday to see the rest of the sights.

I took a few more photos on the way back down. Trying out different settings for smoothing the water.

We had made dinner reservations at the restaurant at the base of the falls. It’s a beautiful building. With the dying light I captured a few photos of the creek and restaurant.

Dinner was absolutely delicious! I had prime rib that was seasoned and cooked to perfection. With potatoes and sautéed zucchini. I’m not sure how they seasoned the zucchini but it was amazing. I totally stuffed myself!

By now we were tired and full and happy. So we headed to our hotel to kick back.

Tomorrow we are visiting Garden of the Gods before heading home!