by Dottie Cooper

Created on: December 30, 2008   Last Updated: July 27, 2009

While one could arguably stay in and around Denver on a vacation, take a short trip south on I-25 to U.S. Highway 24 and head west to immerse yourself in the mountainous culture Colorado natives proudly claim as their own and find a gem or two in some of the small mountain towns along the way.

Driving west on U.S. Highway 24 from Colorado Springs yields an interesting thoroughfare through a variety of eclectic small mountain towns and numerous scenic photography opportunities. As travel begins just west of Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs starts the small-town tour. Manitou offers a smattering of one-of-a-kind shops and eateries. It is probably most famous for its Pikes Peak Cog Railway, the highest cog train in the world. Driving north through Manitou Springs will take you into northern Colorado Springs and the famous red rock park called Garden of the Gods, replete with hiking trails, picnic spots, rock scrambling, visitors centers and rare geologic splendors. There is a wealth of information available on Manitou Springs if you google it. On this particular day trip, we decided to just drive west past Manitou and see what we happened to find.

Further driving will take you through towns like Green Mountain Falls, Crystola, Woodland Park, Florissant, Divide and eventually you will end up in Lake George, population about two-thousand. We at first drove past Lake George with no plans to stop. We found a pristine overlook that consisted of virgin snow plains that climbed sharply to craggy mountains. It was very much my brother's dream shot for a picture of him and his car, so after taking a picture of his new Subaru Legacy against a backdrop of snow covered plains and mountains, we turned around.

As we were driving through Lake George, thirst got the better of us and we had long since passed the McDonald's in Woodland Park and the general store in Florissant and the mom and pop shops in Divide. Out of nowhere, a large sign advertising "Lake George Pizza" appeared and I couldn't see anything that I thought should resemble a pizza restaurant near the sign. Turns out we drove right past it.

My brother turned the car around and pulled in to what was, quite frankly, an inconspicuous mobile-home-looking building sitting on the edge of the highway. As we pulled up into the damp, red mud parking lot, it appeared to be someone's small golden-oak, log-cabbinish mobile home, complete with floral curtains hanging primly from the windows and home printed signs detailing

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