The Springs!
I had the pleasure of spending my birthday week in Colorado Springs, known by locals as The Springs. It was such a breath of fresh, autumn air! Although we stayed in a beautiful resort called the Cheyenne Mountain Resort, I had only a few days to explore and wanted to make the most of it. The afternoon we arrived, we met up with some colleagues, drove to Garden of the Gods Park, and walked a version of the Perkins Central Garden Trail, which was paved and easy, with views of most of the major rock formations in the park. We were pretty wiped out from our red-eye from Hawaii, but I felt an urge to attempt the Manitou Incline the following day. We've already done the Grouse Grind in Vancouver and Koko Head Stairs in Honolulu, so this seemed like the next logical step. I was a little worried about the altitude and not being in the best shape after resting my plantar fasciitis foot for the past month, but I figured I'd be okay if I took it easy. ...