TRAVEL DAY 8

Sedalia

Today's goal was to go down to Colorado Springs via Sedalia to find a few more great American treasures. We got as far as Sedalia, but more on that in a little while.

Sedalia proudly shows off a hilltop mansion with a great history and present. It is the Cherokee Ranch, located 20 miles south of Denver in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It is situated in an absolutely extraordinary setting with a variety of landscape themes across 3,200 acres of open space with exceptional views of the natural landscape and extensive mountain range. The property boasts numerous examples of outstanding archaeological and historic resources that reflect Colorado's Western history and heritage including 13th-century Indian caves where the Woodland Indians lived for about 100 years; a 1840s mountainman trail used by trappers and traders; mid-1860s homesteads; 1920s farming; and a purebred cattle ranch.

The distinct focal point of the property is the mammoth Castle that occupies a conspicuous site on a promontory surveying the valley. Designed by prominent Denver architect Burnham F. Hoyt (my husband called it the “Hoyt Castle.” Get it?), the Castle was built (1924-1926) as the ranch owner’s residence for Charles Alfred Johnson, a Denver businessman. The Castle appears to be part of the rock formation on which it is grounded; its walls are made of stone quarried on a bluff east of the site, and it emulates a 15th century Scottish castle. It features four towers, turrets, battlements, tall chimneys, gargoyles, copper down spouts, and a Vermont slate gabled roof. The Castle has 24 rooms and a complex and irregular plan. 

Many interior features are notable such as the eight fireplaces, Portuguese tile, iron window grills, and large stone corbels in the Great Hall. Paintings, furniture, and other accessories are of historical value and on public display. The building is known for its outstanding architectural merit, including the skill of the stonemasons and its highly regarded architect, and recognized for its association with some of Denver’s more prominent individuals.

Below is the last picture I took before I found myself falling flat on my face, looking for the next well-composed shot. Well, no more shots and the photographer certainly not composed.

"This is the place" monument for the dais that I missed. One small step for the alert; a giant leap for the scatterbrain.

We turned around and returned to the hotel while I was holding a bag of ice on my knee.

And so we cancelled the rest of the trip for today, but I will still include some information about the very fascinating destinations that were on my map. 

Glen Eyrie Castle, Colorado Springs

Glen Eyrie is an English Tudor style castle built by General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. There are 17 guest rooms in the castle, as well as four meeting rooms and two dining rooms. This house was his dream home and is near Colorado Springs in the northwest foothills north of the Garden of the Gods rock formations (now a city park). After building a large carriage house, where the family lived for a time, Palmer and his wife Mary (Queen) Mellen built a 22-room frame house on the 800-acre (3.2 km²) estate. This house was remodeled in 1881 to include a tower and additional rooms, and made to resemble a stone castle, reminiscent of those native to England. (The following photos are not mine. I wish we could have continued our tour... But the pictures show what we missed.) [Pout]

Queen Palmer, at age 21, opened the first public school in Colorado Springs in November 1871.

Garden of the Gods

The outstanding geologic features of the park are the ancient sedimentary beds of deep-red, pink, and white sandstone, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains and the Pikes Peak massif. The following Pleistocene Ice Age resulted in erosion and glaciation of the rock, creating the present rock formations. Evidence of past ages can be read in the rocks: ancient seas, eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches, and great sand dune fields.

Wrote one author of the park, "You wind among rocks of every conceivable and inconceivable shape and size... all bright red, all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been just stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catastrophe."

Shrine of the Sun Castle

“Spectacular from afar; breathtaking from the top.”

The Shrine of the Sun Castle was built by Spencer Penrose between 1934 and 1937; it stands dedicated to Will Rogers who died in a plane crash in 1935. The elevation of the shrine is 8,136 feet on the top deck and provides breathtaking views of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak Region. 

ARM CHAIR DAY TRIP

COLORADO: BISHOP'S CASTLE,

CANO'S CASTLE