Twilight at the Garden of The Gods

Temperatures from high 70s to low 60s by the end of the ride.

I left home a little after 1800hrs, the objective to get to the Garden of the Gods Park in Colorado Springs just before sunset and get some pics with the fading sun painting the rocks in hopefully rich colors. The original title in my mind for this posting was Sunset at the Garden of the Gods.

I took the I-25 slab down to make time and that was not to be. There was a sign giving notice that there was an accident 7 miles ahead when I cleared Castlerock I think. Traffic came to a halt then proceeded at a slow creep as we came to the remnants of the accident. I did not see any wrecked cages, did see a couple pulled over the side of the road and some tow trucks. One bad sign was two motorcycles, a Goldwing and what looked like a Harley Davidson tied down on the back of one flatbed tow truck. Both looked like all their tires were flat!

Traffic speed picked up after clearing the area with the tow trucks and I made good time all the way to the Springs. Unfortunately, after tanking up after getting off I-25, the sun was setting rapidly. The rock formations I wanted to shoot were losing the light! As you can see below, I only got there in time to catch the last bit of sun illuminating just the top of the rock formations. Oh well.

Main Parking Lot

I meandered through the park a bit but finally with the last of twilight fading fast, I got back on the I-25 Slab northbound and headed for home.

Right about the same area where I'd gone through the remnants of the accident, there was apparently another accident. This time I glimpsed someone on a stretcher on the highway! Traffic was completely stopped and piling up for at least two-three miles. Further up I saw the lights of two ambulances and a fire truck racing southwards; not sure how'd they'd get past that piled up traffic though.

I stopped at a rest stop soon afterwards as it was getting a bit chilly now that the sun was gone. The rest of the trip was uneventful, traffic was not too heavy but since I don't really like riding at night, I was glad to get on the E-470 tollway and arriving home soon after 2100hrs.

Still getting used to the Cycleport Kevlar pants, the knee armor is giving me some issues but am working through them I think. More adjustment, with some more riding afterwards is in order.

The ProClip N800 Holder and Ram Mount combo did great.