Penrose (Colorado Springs), CO
We spent a month in this area in October 2023. The actual park we stayed at is about half way between Colorado Springs and Penrose / Cañon City. Also nearby is Florence which is the home to numerous prisons including the ADX supermax prison sometimes known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies. It is one of the most secure prisons in the U.S. and has housed several high profile criminals including Ted Kaczynski (the Unibomber), Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon Bomber), and Richard Reid (the Shoe Bomber). We drove by but didn’t linger in the area!
Also nearby is the Royal Gorge near Cañon City, several roads with beautiful scenery up into the nearby Rocky Mountains (although we played it safe and didn’t try some of the more challenging ones with our dually truck), and of course Florissant, Divide, Woodland Park and Colorado Springs. We took a few road trips and hikes but mostly just hung out at our park. Just before the end of our stay, the area got it’s first winter snow and we woke up one morning to 8″ of snow. Luckily most of it was gone before we left.
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