Mt Elbert Trip: Miscellaneous

Some other aspects of our Mt. Elbert trip.

The most prominent structure at Leadville, CO is the church on 7th street. Our hotel Inns Cloud happens to be on the street as well. So the white tower of the church served as our landmark to locate our hotel. 

Annunciation Catholic Church, with Mt Elbert and Mt Massive (right) in the background

During covid-19 pandemic, the lodging and dinning are main concerns.

The Inns Cloud's policy was:  mandatory face-mask indoor, no house cleaning during guests' stay, 6-feet apart in common areas. We cleaned the room when we first checked in. We used the inn's kitchen for breakfast only. All the guests at the inn, including hostel guests living in the basement,  were all courteous, and mindful of the situation.  So we had no issue at the inn.

front yard of Inns Cloud

Master bed in our room

bunker bed  

Except breakfast, the dinning food were all from restaurants' carry out. We had TexMex, Italian, American and Chinese food. We had the meals in the hotel room, out at patio, and better yet by the Arkansas river or in a park. We had only one indoor meal during the trip, on the way home. 

First meal at Leadville, CO

Lunch from take-out by Arkansas river

Lunch in a community park at Amarillo on the way home 

On the way home, we took a detour to Colorado Springs to visit Garden of the God. It was the worst experience we had  due to poor planning - we went there on 4th of July around 11 am. It was so crowded and we were vary anxious and lost the mood to enjoy the rock formations. Making things worse, the rock formations at Garden of God are disappointments to us, not meet the expectations mainly due to the fact that we have been to Utah Arches, Zions and Bryce canyon national parks. 

Garden of God

 

Rock Formations at Garden of God

Pikes Peak in the background of Garden of God

I enjoyed the rustic scenery along US-287, but there were reckless drivers on the road. We stayed away from them, and rested as need to prevent fatigue and drowsiness. Like everywhere, due to low density and low frequency of people at the rest area, birds moved in. We saw a lot of true sparrows at the rest area.

 

a 1-car accident on US-287, July 4th, 2020

A true Sparrow at a Rest area by US-287

Overall, we enjoyed Mt Elbert trip very, much, leisurely paced, cool and beautiful weather, amazing vista, diverse landscape, rich geology and of course summited Mt Elbert.

Sunset at Walsenburg, CO

Take it All in