Wednesday, June 17, 2015 – Today’s adventure took us to the US Olympic Training Complex and the Garden of the Gods.
First stop US Olympic Training Complex:
The U.S. Olympic Complex in Colorado Springs is the flagship training center for the Olympic Training Center programs.
The Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center rests on a 35-acre complex located near downtown Colorado Springs. The center has sport venues and support facilities for fencing, gymnastics, judo, modern pentathlon, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting and wrestling. The facility also includes a state-of-the-art sports medicine and sport science center, and an athlete center featuring a dining hall and multiple residence halls.
This is the Olympics Hall of Fame museum where we played around a bit!
The Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center is able to provide housing, dining, training facilities, recreational facilities and other services for more than 500 athletes and coaches at one time on the complex. Athletes are selected to train at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center from the top 15% in their sport.
Our visit began with a video presentation showing highlights of USA athletes from the Sochi Winter Olympics and the London 2012 Summer Olympics. I snuck a few pictures during the presentation!
The video was followed by a walking tour of the complex. During the tour we saw:
The shooting training center
The weight lifting training center
The swimming training center
The basketball training center
The gymnastics training center where a young boy was getting lessons
The athlete’s residence halls and dining room
Sports medicine and sports science center
The weight training center and running track for non weight lifting trainees
Our guide was very informative and sweet. The center use to be a military training center but definitely has a USA Olympic look about it now!
Next stop was the Garden of the Gods. I believe there is only one God so the Garden’s name goes against that but it was a beautiful drive through the park.
Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark. Imagine dramatic views, 300′ towering sandstone rock formations against a backdrop of snow-capped Pikes Peak and brilliant blue skies. This world class Visitor & Nature Center is the most visited attraction in this area. It is a city park so visiting it was free.
We stopped at the Visitor Center first, got a map and information on what to see, got back in our truck and were on our way to see the sites.
It is a beautiful drive with lots of giant red rocks rising up from the earth. I see that in the pictures they do not look the same red they do in person. It was all much prettier than the pictures show.
This one is a panoramic shot from one of the overlooks. Click on it to open then after seeing it click the back button to come back to the blog.
The last rock formation we saw was Balanced Rock which Roy was able to crawl up on for these pictures!
When on our way out of the park we saw a deer crossing the road.
A house on the mountain side!
That’s it for today folks! These two tired old folks are taking tomorrow off from sightseeing. Friday’s adventure will be taking the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike’s Peak where we drove to on Monday. We’ll also be visiting the North Pole where we’ll have fun with Santa!
Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!
Click on the links below to go there!
Wacky Wonderful Wednesdays published on Wednesdays
Some Things I Learned About Dementia published randomly
Your pictures are really superb.
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Thank you Sally. I’m only using my new Samsung smart phone and I love it’s camera! Roy’s learning more about it and started me taking a panoramic picture every now and then!
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