Hello and welcome back to Nomad Dad Life! Today’s post will begin our three-month adventure in Colorado Springs. Our time there was a little different than it was in Oregon. We still went and explored what Colorado had to offer, but we had a lot more structure during this stay. We signed Arkyn up for karate, and both Arkyn and Ayla were in swimming lessons for most of our time in Colorado Springs. Karate was two days a week and swimming lessons were one day; this cut down on the time we could explore. They both got ear infections and were sick on and off for the first couple of weeks in Colorado, which again limited our time for exploring.
Great Wolf Lodge
Our first night in Colorado Springs was at the Great Wolf Lodge. We got to our destination a day early so we could take Arkyn and Ayla here so they could just have a day of fun in their new city. Great Wolf Lodge is a chain of indoor waterparks with 19 locations across North America. In addition to the water park, they feature restaurants, arcades, spas, and children’s activities.
The water park was our children’s favorite part of the stay by far. The park is huge and has something for everyone. There is a four-story water treehouse, wave pool, multiple water slides for all ages, and a splash area for toddlers. If it were up to the kids, they would have played here our whole stay at the lodge. The splash pad and toddler water slides were a big hit. The lodge had a bar and restaurant attached to the water park so you didn’t even have to leave to get food or drinks.
To get to the water park you must walk past the mini golf course, rock climbing wall, ropes course, and the arcade. Of course, Arkyn wanted to try everything–Pretty smart layout how they did it like that. We did have a little time after the water park before they closed the arcade so Arkyn got to play there for a while before bed.
BriarGate
We got into our “home” for the next three months shortly after our checkout time from the hotel. We found out that our new place had a pool and hot tub. Spending the previous day at the water park apparently wasn’t enough for Arkyn, as he wanted to check out the pool right away! We got everything unpacked from the vehicles and decided to walk around the neighborhood and check it out. We were used to hiking and walking a lot in Oregon, but it was so different in Colorado Springs. The altitude definitely takes some getting used to, and I wouldn’t recommend running any marathons on your first day there!
We went to see the hospital where Fae would be working, and it turned out there was a huge park across the road from it with two different playground areas separated by a large turf field for playing baseball, soccer, and football. We spent a lot of time there throughout our stay, as there was a lot to do for both Arkyn and Ayla.
Activities
We looked around for options for swimming lessons and something else for Arkyn to get involved in while we were there. 3T Karate had a “Tiny Tigers” class that ran for two months that would be starting soon so we scheduled Arkyn for a meeting to see if he would be able join. He was a couple months away from the 3-year-old threshold. He actually listened really well at the meeting, and they let him try the class! Being in that class did so much for Arkyn’s development and discipline; he was pretty much a different kid after karate.
We were given a recommendation for swimming lessons with Safesplash Swim School. They didn’t have any set schedule. You could just book a week in advance which day of the week you wanted to show up. It was nice having the flexibility to change days week to week so we could get Arkyn and Ayla to have their lessons at the same time. There was a large viewing area so parents could watch their children without having to go into the pool area.
Garden of the Gods
Once the children started feeling better after the ear infections, we were ready to get out and explore Colorado. Luckily for us the first place was right in Colorado Springs. It was nice not having to drive hours to see some of nature’s wonders! Garden of the Gods was one of our children’s favorite places in Colorado. The trails were flat and paved so they could walk them themselves. It was a popular place for rock climbers so they could watch people scale the huge red rock formations.
The park has over 21 miles of trails so there was a lot of area for the children to explore and see something different each time. Both Arkyn and Ayla love climbing on things, so it was nice there were some areas for them to climb rocks here instead of climbing all over furniture and other things inside the house.
It is a city park, so there is no entrance fee or parking fee, so it’s a great place to go back to multiple times. The children loved it and so did our bank account! The park was named after the surveyors said it would make a great beer garden. It was a place fit for the gods to assemble, so they called it Garden of the Gods, proving that almost everything in Colorado revolves around beer!
Palmer Park
Garden of the Gods gets around 2,000,000 visitors annually making it easily the most visited park in Colorado Springs, but it isn’t the only one worth checking out. Palmer Park is another park we visited multiple times. It has a large playground, multiple dog parks, and miles of trails. Our children loved being able to play or climb rocks while they watched dogs run around!
There was so much to explore in the park and 25 miles of trails for hiking, biking, or horseback riding. One of our trips to the park Ayla found out what a pricklypear cactus is. She insisted on walking by herself on the trail, got distracted, and tripped off the trail into a small patch of pricklypear. She had spines in her leg that we had to pull out with a tweezer. After that she learned to pay more attention and stay away from them!
We’ll end our first Colorado post here for the day. The next one will get into other areas around Colorado Springs, and we’ll start getting into other areas around Colorado that we visited. Please follow our journey on social media; click one of the links below.
Links
Garden of the Gods: https://gardenofgods.com/
Palmer Park: https://coloradosprings.gov/parks/page/palmer-park
3T Karate: https://3tcolorado.com/
SafeSplash Swim School: https://www.safesplash.com/
BJ Rylander
May 29, 2023 — 2:31 am
You are certainly seeing some beautiful scenery! Thanks for taking us along on your travels!