St. Mary's Falls

The number one thing I love about Colorado is that there's SO much to do. Where I was staying in Colorado Springs there must've been hundreds of trails to hike around me, all within less than 30 minutes away. I love hiking so while I was there I tried to get on as many trails as I could. On this particular day we chose to take a 3 mile hike up to St. Mary's Falls on Cheyenne Mountain. The beginning of the path took us up right along side the stream coming down from the falls, filling the forest with sounds of running water. As we moved up the mountain, however, the path strayed away from the stream and made it's way along the edge of the mountain, offering some great views of the trees and hills surrounding as. The hike up actually wasn't that bad, considering it was all uphill for over 3 miles. I think the mountain air gives me an aura of invincibility, as I speed walked up the entire path, never needing to stop to catch my breath or sip some water, leaving my friend and his parents in the dust. However, I did stop every once in a while to take some pictures and gaze at the beautiful scenery around me. My time in Colorado has taught me to really appreciate nature and the Earth, as back home in Fayetteville, North Carolina instead of picturesque mountains and trees around me all there is commercial buildings, restaurants, and houses. It makes me wonder what the world would look like had we not tore up the land to incessantly build upon it.

The falls themselves were spectacular as well. I'm not sure how tall they were but it seemed like a pretty big drop from the base of the cliff. Once we got to the base of the falls we had to take these little stone steps up to the top, but unfortunately they only went up about halfway and from there if you wanted to go to the top of the falls you had to climb up the rocks, which I definitely was not prepared to do! After taking some pictures and absorbing the beauty of it all we turned around to head back down the trail. And then it started thunder storming. The rain was freezing and it must've dropped about 20 degrees. We started running down the mountain in order to get back to the car as quickly as possible. Luckily after about 5 minutes the lightning stopped but it rained the entire way down. Soon my hands went numb but I continued to run through the woods as fast as I could. It was actually pretty nice to run through the trees. I felt like a bullet in the wind! Of course, as soon as we got to our car it stopped raining and the sun came out (just my luck). But even with the rain the entire hike was so worth it. Sometimes, you just gotta take what nature gives ya!