(Day 4) The Justifiable Kiddie Coaster... oh, also, TERROR-Dactyl

See, its not Credit Whoring if we spend the afternoon at the Zoo first!
Yeah, lets go with that!

Day Four took us from our hotel in Trinidad up to Colorado Springs, passing Pueblo, where we visited the beautiful Cave of the Winds as well as Santa's Workshop amusement park before backtracking south again to Pueblo to visit the zoo and see if we could ride a semi-newly-discovered kiddie coaster next to the zoo (one that we weren't even sure if adults could ride! ha) and then returning to Colorado Springs, again.. and onward to our hotel for the night just south of Denver, in Castle Rock.

Since we still ended up waking up well before our alarm, we packed up, ate some hotel made waffles and hit the road for our 130 mile / just under 2 hour drive up to Colorado Springs, reaching our first stop, Cave of the Winds just as they opened.

The road to Colorado Springs.
woo

Hey look, it's Pikes Peak!

The highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
And... it still has snow.

Cave of the Winds!
In Manitou Springs

The drive to the top was rather breathtaking.
The road is nothing but extremely sharp, banked hairpin turns... with no guardrails or anything to keep you from driving off the side of the cliff walls.... <3

Bear... bear bear... bear.... bear.

A view of the valley from main building.

Where you can sit in a rocking chair and just enjoy...

Williams Canyon, and the surrounding area.

Cave of the Winds first ride was an S&S/Soaring Eagle Zip Line named Bat-a-Pult.

The zip is 600 feet each way and slides you along side of the canyon.
It looked fun... but we had something more exciting to try.
(Plus, we rode a different Soaring Eagle Zip Line later that day)

Rocks and Minerals of Colorado display at the visitors complex.

I guess this is a map of the cave?
We didn't do a cave tour because of limited time. If I was ever back in the area I would give it a try but we were only here for one reason...

Oh look, and the caves double as a fallout shelter.

Oh man! A bear! Uh, again! :D

Ha, I wanted both of these.. a stuffed T-Rex and a Bear.

This terrible looking 'cave crawl' thing... No way in hell was I gonna squeeze my ass into that.
It actually made me kinda nervous just to look at it...

They also have a small ropes course named Wind Walker Challenge that features a section that hangs off edge of a 600 foot drop off. The whole time I watched people in the structure, I never saw anyone walk over to that area. (I would have...)

= Death
Making our way to the back of the complex, we found the thing we had come here for...

Ah.. our first look at the TERROR-Dactyl.
We got here just in time to see the first riders of the day ride
(We were the second set!)

The ride is similar to a Sky Coaster, only you start at the top. Once strapped into the seat, the floor is pulled away and you're leaned forward, facing down into the canyon.

After a few seconds... you're just dropped..into the canyon, swinging toward the other side of the rock wall.

Opened in July of 2014, the ride wasn't even a year old yet at the time of our flight. It had been pretty well published around the amusement community via Social Media although I hadn't known anyone who had ridden it yet (being somewhat off the path of the average Coaster Enthusiast)

The ride aspect itself is very much like riding a Sky Coaster, only sitting in a seat...
But starting at the top was rather unique and offered a different sort of rush.
Just kinda sitting there as they pull away the load platform, staring at the canyon wall across the way.... and then as they start to tilt you forward 90*'s to face the canyon floor... just kinda hanging you there. This by far was my favorite part....  Man, the anticipation.

And without warning (we declined a lame count down)... we were just dropped, 200 feet down into the canyon at nearly 100 mph... rushing up toward the other side before swinging back and fourth a few times, as the seat moves about freely, even rotating a bit.

Man.... the TERROR-Dactyl was incredible....
And totally Rob's idea to stop and ride it.

The loading platform and ride vehicle, it almost felt like the Screamin' Swings seat, but with a 5 point harness setup.

And this is the view you get before being dropped down into Williams Canyon.
I would have loved to have gone for a second ride.. but it was $$$ (although worth it)
I still think my two giant Florida Sky Coasters are better, but TERROR-Dactyl is pretty awesome.

<3 Yeesss!
A video still just seconds after being released into the free fall.
(Ugh, they made me remove my glasses, even with a strap)

After walking around the visitors complex for a bit and watching a few other people ride the TERROR-Dactyl, we made our way back down to the valley.

The road out of Cave of the Winds should be listed as an attraction too!

All three of our days in Colorado (and my fourth solo day) were under flash flood advisories...
And here's a warning sign about them! 

Our next stop of the day was to be Santa's Workshop in Cascade, just a few miles down the road from Cave of the Winds... but when looking on maps I noticed if we drove a couple of miles past the park, we could add an extra county to our trip... And so we went slightly out of our way to visit Teller County. (Uh, +1!)

Heading back to Cascade, we pulled up to Santa's Workshop, the parks entrance is at the base of Pikes Peak and its famous auto-road (that our poor rental would have never made up)

Woo, Santa's Workshop in Cascade, Colorado
My first Colorado amusement park!

The main entrance and also, gift shop.

<3 greatest park sign ever?

Making our way to the back of the park first, we found ourselves in line for Santa’s Sleigh Ride

A Soaring Eagle Zip Line, included with admission.
(and featuring on-ride audio.... best described as someone chanting "Merry Christmas, Merry Merry Christmas" over and over with a techno beat)

The view from the launch tower.

I think this Mini-Himalaya is a requirement for every Santa themed park...

North Pole's US Post Office.

Apparently, Santa has an enchanted forest

Dive Bombers, the parks set of Flyer's.

:O Bear #3?!

Uh...
The parks Frog Hopper themed as Rodeo Rider.

And... the reason we came to the park....

Candy Cane Coaster!

The terrifying lift hill...

I'm not sure if I can handle it....

Haha, yeesss!
My first Colorado Coaster credit!

<3 Chance built Space Shuttle!
I'd only ridden one other before... so I made Rob ride it with me.

Giant Wheel... had to be ridden for photo ops!

Like this one.

(pretty pretty)

They were only using every other car but because the unused cars were bagged, it looked as if the ride was closed from afar.

:D Little Deers!!! :D

Lots of neat glass... things... in one of the gift shops.

Creepy....

Woo, we had to ride the Paratrooper!

Ugghhh..... the Peppermint Slide.
It seemed like a good idea at the time

Until it left me with Third-Degree Burns and some road-rash on my arm that lasted 2 weeks.

Santa's train, I would have liked to have ridden it but because we needed to drive back to Pueblo, it was skipped.

The Christmas Tree Ride, another ride I think is required at all Santa parks...

Although we did take a quick ride on the Sky Ride before making our exit into the gift shop

Yeeesssssss!!!

Also, this is pretty fantastic too. :D

So after leaving Santa behind we started our backtrack, south down to Pueblo, CO and the Pueblo Zoo & City Park. There is a small kiddie park built within the City Park that doesn't open until 5pm and we weren't even sure if adults could ride the sole-coaster there as it was pretty 'new' to the coaster community and neither us have known anyone who had attempted to ride it yet... and if worse comes to worst, at least we still would have spent the afternoon at the zoo.
see, justifiable.

The Zoo itself was built within Pueblo City Park, established in 1904
(the zoo opened in the 30's)
The place is pretty big, featuring a number of sport fields, playgrounds, open space, lakes, and a small community water park.

Horseshoe Lake

Flowers

More flowers...

...and even more flowers!

And... the Pueblo Zoo :D
 Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
(Uh, my first Colorado Zoo?)

The Historic Bear Pits!
Although they were lacking in bears now... it was kinda neat they had these signs.

Monkey Mountain.

Noted, not an exhibit.

Forbidden Monkey Island

Stairs that once led to some of the old exhibits once held at the zoo.

Another abandoned building at the zoo.

African Painted Dogs were going to be debuting at the zoo later this summer, so parts were blocked off during our visit.

THE WONNNNDUHFUL WORLD OF COLLLLLLUR!
(oh wait)

Oh man! But RED PANDA are pretty fantastic!

:D :D :D
<3 <3 <3
How could you not love them!

African Penguins all bunched up together

...because it was feeding time.

Mr. Macaw

Uhh.. Cockatoo
(I think PJ's Pets turned me off to them for life....)

Aw, baby Canadian Goose
I was kinda surprised how many we saw in every state we visited.
(they were everywhere in Massachusetts but they don't come to Florida I guess)

<3 Mr.Mallard

CAW CAW! AMERICA! CAW CAW!

These Geese came over to us with their babies hoping we had snacks.. but we didn't.

<3 Ring-Tailed  Lemurs!
(looking all sassy)

Um... moving on.

Oh look, the Pallas's cat! We walked past the enclosure 2 or 3 times before finally seeing her up on the rocks.

Moo?

A soon Goose....

A little recently shaved Alpaca.

Aw, Mama duck with a chick <3

South American Maned Wolf

It was mud bath time for the Rocky Mountain Elk...

And the Malayan Sun Bear was just kickin' back in the shade along the fence line
:3

So were the lions... and they were being very vocal.
Kinda gave me chills being just a few feet from them as the lioness kept roaring.

Hmm Mr. Prairie Dog wonders whats over there....
It was about time for the rides to start opening, so we made our way out of the Zoo and over to the amusement area just past the Zoo's entrance.
(but first...)

Frozen Treat?
Blue Drank!

Yup, rides are just 25c... Well, make that 50 cents for adults (unpublished and only discovered after tickets were paid for and the coaster was attempted to be ridden...)

The whole ride area is very well kept and full of vintage kiddie flat rides, like this kiddie whip.

And this odd looking Ferris Wheel, one of the only rides that specifically mentioned no adult riders.

Neat looking spinning ride.

Mr. Horrifying.. uh.. scarecrow trashcan?

Annddd..... the reason we made the backtrack!

'Roller Coaster'
It may date back as far as 1970
(it wasn't discovered to RCDB until 2012)

Because of its more remote location and relatively new knowness we were unsure what the rider policy would be... thankfully, adults are able to ride and while the kid running the ride was probably half of our ages... we got our credit.

 Rob getting his 50 cent credit

Semi-nerd shot of the manual release system.

The coasters thrilling first drop.

As you can see, I was thrilled.

City Park Carousel,  Carousel #72.

Built in 1911 by Charles Wallace Parker Amusement Devices Company

And listed on the National Register of Historic Places

City Park's Miniature train

The train leaves the amusement area itself and heads out into the park and around one of the ponds before returning the rides area.

After leaving Pueblo it was time to backtrack again, north, to Denver.
The drive should have been just over an hour (but with plans to stop we judged around 2)

That is until we met the joys of unnecessary traffic.
(note how were going exactly 0 mph....)

Rob really wanted to fine a Perkins' to eat at since we almost always stop at one on our trips, so we found one back in Colorado Springs

Maannn... I would have rather ate here! :P

After some dindin, it was off to our Denver area hotel in Castle Rock for some ZzZzz's

Oh hey... and Castle Rock is like.. an actual rock!
(Also, like I mentioned in the last post.. there were also lights on this hill, in the shape of a star)

Ok, made it to the hotel.. Sleep now... Elitch and Lakeside in the morning!

Bonus stuff from Twitter

TERROR-dactyl (via Vine) - Video
Santa's Workshop (via Vine) - Video
Kiddie Coaster at Pueblo City Park (via Vine) - Video

yup