Route 66 - Shamrock

From Amarillo, we continued east across the Texas Panhandle. And along the way I saw these really cool old grain silos, so I exited the freeway and stopped to get a few pictures. They sit along the interstate access road, which was actually Route 66 back in the olden days.



The silos are probably all that remains of the town of Boydston, which was a little farming community that only ever had a population of 40 people.





The silos used to sit along some Rock Island train tracks, which connected El Reno, Oklahoma and Tucumcari, New Mexico. The tracks, and the little town that they once passed through, are all long gone.



After that we drove to the small town of Shamrock, where we stopped for the night. Shamrock is home to one of the most iconic buildings along Route 66 - the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn. The art deco structure was built in 1936, and was a gas station and cafe.



It stayed open for decades, until the 1990s. But in the 2000s, it was fully restored and reopened as a museum, visitor center and cafe.







It was a quiet night in Shamrock, except for the fireworks. It was the Fifth of July, and there were plenty of people out shooting off their leftover fireworks.



The Tower Station and U-Drop Inn was the inspiration for one of the buildings in the town of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars. Here it is shown as Ramone's body shop:



The next day we continued driving east, heading towards home. We were eager to get back, so we didn't make any stops along the way (besides gas and food, of course). One really nice thing about this road trip was having the World Cup going on - we were able to listen to a lot of the games while we were driving. It really helped break up the time spent in the car. On this last leg of our trip, we listened to Spain play Portugal.

We crossed into Oklahoma, and then back into Arkansas. It started pouring down rain as we reached Little Rock, and it turns out the worst weather on our road trip hit once we were almost home. But we made it. We drove through six states for a grand total of 2,665 miles (and one flat tire).

Route 66 - Cadillac Ranch

It was time to start heading back home, so we packed up the car and drove south out of Colorado. We crossed into New Mexico, and then into Texas (and for the record, the most expensive gas we saw on the trip was in the Texas panhandle). And after a few hours of driving, we made it to Amarillo. And when you're in Amarillo, you are obligated to make a stop at the Cadillac Ranch.

Cadillac Ranch is an eccentric art display, with ten old Cadillac cars that have been half-buried in an open field. It opened in 1974 along Route 66, the byproduct of a group of underground artists called the Ant Farm.







At this point, I doubt most of the people who visit here are wanting to see an experimental and subversive piece of outdoor sculpture. It seems like most people just visit as an excuse to spray-paint graffiti. It was crowded when we were there, as soon as one person finished spray-painting the cars, another person took over and started painting over it. There were love hearts, smiley faces, people's names, religious notes, the countries people were cheering for in the World Cup, and people's opinions about Donald Trump.



The old cars have been spray-painted so much, with layers and layers of paint, that it looks like odd growths (or maybe something like cave formations) hanging off of the cars.



You can find pictures online of Cadillac Ranch when it first opened, back when the cars were free of graffiti. It's really strange to see the old Cadillacs in their original colors, way before they became the canvas for anyone walking by with a can of paint.



There was a truck parked nearby that sold cans of spray-paint, and dozens of empty cans littered the grounds around the cars. And the cars weren't the only things that had been painted. The ground itself was spray-painted with graffiti, along with the fence and the nearby road. The air itself seemed to be thick with the fumes from the cans of spray-paint too. If you stand still long enough there, someone will probably start spray-painting you as well.



I don't know, I'm sure a better artist or writer could say something about how Cadillac Ranch represents the modern way in which we consume and admire art. The constantly changing graffiti is a mirror to our short attention spans and the constantly changing experiences that are force-fed to us by the algorithm-based content of the digital era. Or something artsy-fartsy like that.

Garden of the Gods

Later that day we went back out and visited one of the most popular parks in Colorado - the Garden of the Gods. The park sits on the edge of Colorado Springs, and protects an area filled with massive red sandstone rock formations. 



Along with the rock formations, there are also great views of Pikes Peak and the other nearby mountains.



The park gets its name from two surveyors, who visited the area in 1859. One of the surveyors, who clearly had his priorities in order, remarked that the area would be a "capital place for a beer garden." The other surveyor replied: "Beer garden! Why, it is a fit place for the Gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods." Which is a more poetic name but definitely not as much fun.



The rock formations are hundreds of millions of years old, and archaeological evidence suggests Native American peoples visited the area as long ago as the year 1330 BC. The Ute people would spend their winters living in the area that is now the park, and spend their summers around Pikes Peak (which they called Tavakiev). The Ute people consider the Garden of the Gods to be their sacred place of origin.





In 1909, the land was donated to the city of Colorado Springs on the condition that it be turned into a public park. Now there are over 21 miles of hiking trails, and the park is a popular spot to go mountain biking, horseback riding and rock climbing. Over two million people visit the park each year.



It was fairly crowded while we were there. Which wasn't all that surprising since it wasn't just a Saturday evening, it was also the Fourth of July.



And one last shot from the Garden of the Gods, taken while looking for the beer garden:



Due to the lack of rain and the extreme fire danger, the official Fourth of July fireworks shows were cancelled in Colorado Springs. There were signs up all across the city warning of the fire danger and saying that fireworks are illegal in the city. But that didn't seem to stop people, as it got dark the skies around us were filled with fireworks and explosions. The fireworks went on for hours, well past midnight. Luckily we managed to get the kids to sleep through most of it (thank goodness for Benadryl!).

Paint Mines

After visiting Pikes Peak, it was time for a change in scenery. From Colorado Springs we drove about 40 minutes out to see the Paint Mines Interpretive Park. The park protects an area of colorful rock and clay formations, containing spires and hoodoos.  

We parked at one of the two trailheads and started the short hike to the formations. The trail starts out in open prairie, filled with grasses and windmills.



And then the trail drops down into the rock formations. The history of the place stretches back millions of years, back to when this area was a subtropical rain forest. Deposits from ancient rivers were then, over time, eroded by rain, wind and snowmelt to create a maze of colorful formations. The rocks get their vibrant and vivid colors from oxidized iron in the clay.



It reminded me of the Painted Desert at Petrified Forest National Park or the Artist's Palette at Death Valley National Park.



Arrowheads and stone dart tips have been found here, showing that the Paint Mines were occupied by Native American people for as long as 9,000 years. The area gets its name because the clay was used to paint and create pottery.





It is a really neat and kid-friendly area to explore. Here's one last shot before we hiked back to the car and headed back to Colorado Springs

Pikes Peak

The next day we packed up the car and left Estes Park, heading southeast towards Denver. We had a mild case of culture shock as we went from the quiet peace of the National Park to the traffic jams of a huge city. But it was worth it so that we could visit Casa Bonita, the Disney Land of Mexican restaurants. We saw the cliff divers, the pirate cave, and even Cartman. And after a few hours we got back in the car, suffered through some more traffic, and then eventually made our way to Colorado Springs.

The next day we returned to the high elevation mountains with a visit to Pikes Peak. There are a few ways you can reach the top of the mountain. You can hike to the top via a 13.5 mile uphill trek that has over 7,400 feet of elevation gain. Or you can drive along a 19 mile-long road that switchbacks up the mountain. We were lazy and just took the train instead. The Pikes Peak Cog Railway starts out at a quaint little train station in Manitou Springs, and then runs directly to the summit. The ride up takes about an hour and has an elevation gain of about 7,800 feet. The conductor on our train spent the time on the way up telling some cheesy jokes, like describing the different types of wildlife that live on the mountain. He mentioned that earlier that day they saw the Rocky Mountain flamingo (just as the train passes by a plastic pink flamingo standing by the tracks).

The views from the train are great - and made me really glad I wasn't having to drive up there.



The tracks ran through thick forests and alongside a few streams with waterfalls on them. Then the train cleared the tree line.



The conductor also gave lots of facts about the mountain and its history, including how a poet named Katherine Bates traveled to the summit in 1893 and was inspired by the sweeping view. She wrote a poem, which was published and then became the lyrics for the song "America the Beautiful." And just in case anyone wasn't familiar with the song, our conductor sang it for his captive audience on the train.



And soon enough the train made one last push up the mountain to the summit, which sits at an elevation 14,115 feet.



At the top is a visistor center that has a museum, gift shop and a little cafe that sells donuts. We only had about an hour there before the train departed to head back down the mountain, so I hurried to get a few pictures. This is the view looking back towards Colorado Springs:



It was really hazy up there thanks to smoke from some really bad wildfires in Colorado.



The elevation up there is no joke. I got winded walking up the stairs at the visitor center, and there were people laying on the ground on the visitor center. We saw one family from Florida who had people who passed out because they were not acclimated to the elevation change.





Next to the visitor center was the remains of this old stone wall, which was part of an early shelter built in 1873.



And one last shot from the summit, before our hour was up and it was time to head back to the train.



Thanks to gravity, the ride down the mountain is a little bit quicker. And thankfully the conductor didn't serenade us with any songs again. Soon enough we were back in the train station in Manitou Springs. The depot was built in 1891:





We went back to Colorado Springs, and the place where we were staying actually had a view looking back towards Pikes Peak. It's kinda cool how the mountain just looms over the city.