Today was bittersweet knowing that it was Grams and Pop’s last day with us. Since they had to head to the Denver Airport by 3pm we thought we would spend the day exploring Denver. Adam realized what we were looking at doing was on the opposite side of the city and would have taken them just as long to get to the airport so that morning we switched our plans. First, we went over to Grams and Pop’s hotel so we could see their hotel that had the indoor pool in the lobby and their room here. We decided to head over to the Broadmoor Hotel to do their Seven Falls Waterfall Trail.
This was such a beautiful and peaceful way to spend our last bit of time together and we were all very happy we ended up here instead of at the dinosaur museum in Denver. The trail here was very beautiful with huge red rocks on one side and the runoff from the waterfall on the other with several varieties and colors of wildflowers throughout. There were little pathways that led down to the water and then right back to the trail so there was never the feeling of possibly missing something if you didn’t go one way or another.
It was a pretty warm day and the girls noticed the sprinklers on watering the plants. They decided to go over to the sprinklers and let them water them too. They ended up having a really fun time running around in the sprinklers while we sat under a covered structure and watched them.
When we got to the beginning of the waterfall we stopped and had lunch at the 1874 restaurant. 1874 was the year gold was found in Colorado and made a huge impact on development and the future of this area. When we first walked in to the restaurant there was a stuffed bobcat with a sign saying it was shot in the parking lot. Adam asked to see where the bullet pierced it and right there on it’s right side there was a circular indentation.
After lunch we went over to the base of the waterfall. There were really steep, steps that you could take to the top of the falls. Grams and Pop decided to wait at the bottom in the rocking chairs. The four of us started out. Lily and I got a few steps up and decided we were headed back to the rocking chairs with Grams and Pop. Ella and Adam went up the first staircase and stopped at the landing. He made Ella stop and look down the whole time because he was worried she would get up and then get scared and have a problem coming down. Once they got to the landing his concern took over and they came back down.
From there we went to the pathway cut into the mountain to the elevator so we could go to the lookout point. Once we got up there we were able to see all 7 falls.
We started our peaceful walk back. We all wanted to see the Broadmoor, which our tour guide at The Garden of The Gods talked to us about. By this point Grams and Pop only had a little amount of time so they got to see the lobby and we found a coffee/bakery/ice cream store. Grams and Pop bought the girls ice cream. After a short stop here it was time for them to head to the airport. We chose to stay here to continue exploring. This hotel was beyond magnificent and we were all really enjoying being on their grounds. We made our way out to the lake and off of the bridge we could see the fish swimming in the water. Our original plan was to head over to Garden of The Gods to do some of the trails we hadn’t gotten to do the other day, but we were all so enamored with it here we couldn’t tear ourselves away. We ended up sitting outside at one of their restaurants. As we sat down the waitress brought us over complimentary snacks (popcorn and tashin seasoned pistachios). I had an incredible Espresso Martini, Adam had a whiskey cocktail, the girls each got a Shirley Temple and we shared their warm pretzel stick appetizer. We enjoyed our drinks while looking out at the lake and the view of the mountains beyond it.
Ella had to use the restroom which ended up being right by the ballroom. She was so excited to check it out and she was in awe of it. Before we left for the day Lily had to go to the bathroom so we all ended up back in the ballroom again. We never made it back to our campground in time this whole stay for the girls to get their daily free ice pop again.
