Today’s update is going to be relatively short since I want to get out there and make the most of my last day in the Denver area. I’ll have to add photos on Monday!
We packed our Saturday in Colorado to the seams. We opened the day by heading to the Butterfly Pavilion, an indoor insect zoo with a huge open area to see dozens of butterfly species up close. None landed on me, but a few came close! The Pavilion was amazing, and the people there are really passionate about what they do!
After leaving the Butterfly Pavilion, we headed down south to Pike’s Peak. We got a lot more than we bargained for!
At Pike’s Peak, we opted to take our own vehicle to the summit. Unfortunately, the weather soured as we neared the top, which made the drive a little too harrowing for our tastes! Christina covered her eyes and blindly took photos out the passenger window, while I fudged closer to the center line. The road itself was fine, and plenty wide, but when you’ve got bad weather and a two foot shoulder next to a thousand foot drop, it’s a little scary.
When we reached the summit, we had another scare. The storm had started to worsen and we were pelted with wind and snow. We had to wait outside the gift shop for a few minutes due to COVID capacity restrictions, while wearing t-shirts and shorts, in a snowstorm. As we waited, one of the rangers was telling the person controlling shop admission that the storm was getting even worse. He was debating whether to force everyone at the summit into the shop or force everyone on shuttles to rush down the mountain ASAP.
Right after we heard those plans, we were finally granted shop access. We really didn’t want to get caught at the peak of a mountain in the worst of it, so we rushed in, grabbed a photo, bought the coolest looking mug we could find, and got out of dodge.
After battling snow for the first stretch, with a bad windshield wiper that nearly obscured my vision when I used it, the snow turned back to rain and then finally dissipated. We stopped at a few scenic overlooks and I got some photos with my 3D camera.
At the bottom, we had hoped to find an escape room in Colorado Springs, but all were either closed or didn’t show any available bookings, and none of the most likely options answered their phones when I called. So we booked an escape room closer to Denver that had been recommended to us, Experiment C73 at Conundrum.
I’ll write more about it in a separate article, but Experiment C73 was incredible. It was focused heavily on the cooperative / communicative aspects of escape room games, which is one of Christina’s and my favorite types of puzzle. It gave us a great adrenaline rush, and we’re looking forward to trying the rest of Conundrum’s games.
High on adrenaline, we searched the area for escape rooms that hadn’t yet closed for the night, and we found Puzzle Effect which had Curse on the Emerald Seas at 10PM. That was a fun game, too, and a good way to close our night.
We don’t have a clear plan of action for our Sunday in Denver, but we’re about to head out and see what adventure meets us!
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