Originally posted by michaeldthomas at Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry Is Available!

One of my stops in between Colorado Springs and my adventures climbing mountains and Rocky Mountain National Park was the city of Denver itself. I was disappointed the capitol was under construction, got my oil changed, visited a landmark Denver bookstore, met a friend for dinner. Oh, and visited the Denver Museum of Science.

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Hello friends!

One of the strangest and unexpected detours I took on my winding travels was a quick jaunt into New Mexico. I’d never been, and I’d heard there was a National Monument not far from the Colorado border. So, the morning after the Dunes, I decided to go see it. I was rewarded with amazing views from the top of Capulin Volcano:

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Views from Pike's Peak

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Four more pictures from Garden of the Gods

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Although my experiences in Colorado Springs were sometimes subpar, one of the highlights of my time there was the amazing Garden of the Gods. A geological oddity that has taken horizontal beds of sedimentary stone, tilted them on end, and allowed glaciation to sculpt them into the shapes you see today.

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Four More from Great Sand Dunes National PArk

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The Painted Wall is one of the most impressive features of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It is the tallest cliff in Colorado, being 2250 feet tall from the river (which you can see in one of the pictures) to the top of the cliff.

The Grand Canyon is about 6000 feet from river to rim, by comparison, and is much wider of course. But this is tougher rock and this Canyon is considerably younger than the Grand Canyon.
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The Kodak House, in Mesa Verde National Park, is not a case of product placement or corporate sponsorship gone awry, thankfully.

The reason why this is called the Kodak House is that camera equipment was stored in one of the rooms by early Mesa Verde investigator Gustaf Nordenskiold. When he first examined the site it had already been severely damaged by treasure hunters, so he just used it as a storage area while investigating more intact nearby locations such as The Long House and Nordenskiold Site #16 (You've seen my pictures of the Long House, but I did not have time to hike out to the overlook to see Site 16. Next time!)
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I'm on the SFF Audio Podcast for the second time, talking about George Orwell's 1984.

http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=48610