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Updated 10/07/2018
I’d never heard of Pueblo, and didn’t have particularly high expectations for the area; it was simply a good way-point between Salida and Denver. Our Salida friends weren’t huge fans – indeed, Pueblo’s a big sprawling city, population >100K, and not really offering recreational opportunities afforded by mountain ranges that are visible, but a good drive away.
On the other hand, we loved camping at Lake Pueblo State Park, which has over 60 miles of shoreline and miles of hiking/biking trails, and is just generally really beautiful. Also, it turns out (prepare yourself for a shock) one of us is a HUGE sucker for river walks; and Pueblo’s river walk, though nowhere near on the order of San Antonio’s, was very charming and delightful for strolling and dining.
Part of Pueblo's riverwalk.
This is a highly idealized picture from a realtor's site, but it gets at the sudden appearance of the rocks on the skyline.
Pueblo was a stepping off point for a lot of very cool stuff. It’s less than an hour to Colorado Springs, where we saw the Garden of the Gods – a park of red rock formations that suddenly pops up apropos of nothing in the middle of Colorado Springs' evergreen suburbia. We also visited the yes, somewhat commercialized but still very interesting Manitou Cliff Dwellings in nearby Manitou Springs, where the Anasazi did NOT live – these dwellings were originally located in the Four Corners area, and were relocated here as a museum and tourist attraction.
Those clever Anasazi with their safety railings!
The area provided easy access to Pikes Peak – a dizzying drive that will test your brakes (and in fact, rangers stop each vehicle on the way down from the Peak to check visitors’ brakes for overheating), and to the must-see, extremely jaw-dropping Bishop’s Castle, which you can climb about if you don’t care about possibly breaking your neck. Bishop’s Castle reminds you that the US is not 100% uniform in building codes, paternalistic protections for the unsuspecting public, etc. – Mr. Bishop, builder of the eponymous castle, rails in his placards against injuries to personal freedom, but this structure testifies that personal freedom is alive and well in Rye, Colorado.
More pictures of Bishop's Castle are below--one picture can't do it justice.
For the curious, they used an infrared sensor to check the temperature, simply waving it near the front wheels.
Pippi thought the highlight of the area was Pub Dog in Colorado Springs, where humans could have a beverage and snack (or dinner) while watching canines cavort in an outdoor, dog park setting. Pippi was even allowed inside the restaurant building, where the restaurateurs had carefully negotiated Health Department concerns by having patrons order and pick up their items at the counter. I hope this idea catches on – it was a lot of fun for us all!
Would we come back?
Would we come back?
The main draw here is Lake Pueblo, which was really nice. It looked like it would be a great place for windsurfing, and the winds came *this* close to being sailable while we were there. Interestingly, though the lake isn't all that big, it has two marinas on it; the marina near us had some fairly big boats on it, including a few in the 40- to 50-foot range.
[Editorial digression: Seeing some of the larger boats inspired my first thoughts of towing a boat behind us, dropping it into lakes and living aboard. And then this came around: https://www.curbed.com/2018/9/5/17824442/rv-for-sale-camper-boat-caravan. There have been others, but they compromised too much. OK, that'll probably never happen but it's fun to think about.]
Lake Pueblo State Park itself was quite agreeable, particularly if you could get a lakeside site with access to launch a kayak. Some sites were lakeside but had ten-foot cliffs to negotiate, so it might be hard to pick a good one from the typical campsite map.
Would We Live Here?
Would We Live Here?
For a little while, the answer was "Yes, we'd live in Pueblo!" Then we thought more about it and realized that the main draw was the lake. While it's a very nice lake, it's sufficiently far outside of town that it violates one of our requirements that we live within easy walking/biking distance of shopping, coffee-shops, and restaurants.
Gratuitous picture of Pippi wearing a hat. A presidential campaign has not been ruled out.
Bonus pictures!
Bonus pictures!
An inlet on Lake Pueblo, CO
A view from Pikes Peak
Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle
Helpful signage in front of Bishop's Castle
More Bishop's Castle Signage
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