Pikes Peak

(AF Academy,  Colorado Springs, CO) Hi 91 Lo 65 – We were looking forward to today as the highlight of our stay in Colorado Springs. We made reservations a week ago to take the cog train to the summit of Pikes Peak. We reserved seats on the 8am train to take advantage of the clear morning skies. Also, there was a coupon online for the early departure that gave us a $5 discount on the regular $35 apiece ticket price.

We arrived at the Manitou Pikes Peak Railway station in Manitou Springs around 7:15. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)


After checking in we sat in the waiting room and watched a video about the railway and the trip up Pikes Peak. Finally around 7:45 our train arrived and we boarded.




Our train consisted of three cars, with two attached and one on its own. We were in the double-car. The trip to the top took about an hour. The first half of the trip was rather routine, with lots of trees and boulders. Nothing very spectacular on its own. Then we passed 11,000 ft elevation and the trees disappeared, and once again we were traveling across treeless tundra. This is the single car ahead of us.






We passed a small group of pronghorn sheep grazing on the sparse vegetation.


We finally reached the summit, 14,110 ft. above sea level.


The temperature on top was 48 degrees, cool but nice in the sun with just a long-sleeve shirt on. Our train conductor said it snowed on the peak last Thursday, so snow can happen up there at any time of the year.

Our train was sidled up next to the visitors center.




We were told about the delicious donuts they sell in the visitors center, so we immediately went inside to try them out. They’re made from a special recipe that's required, and only works, up in high altitude. They’re cake donuts, very light and sweet. Quite tasty. (But not as good as the glazed donuts at Rise and Roll Bakery in Middlebury, IN… they’re the best in the world as far as I’m concerned.)

After getting our donut fix we wandered outside and tried to take in as much of the beautiful scenery as we could in the 45 minutes we had available before the train left.






Here I am snapping away just inches from a several thousand foot drop. Dee was screaming at me at the same time she was taking my picture. :)


Another VERY steep drop off.


The summit is very smooth, with plenty of parking space for the cars that drive up the Pikes Peak Highway.


This is the last switch back of the highway before it ends at the summit.


It wasn’t very crowded on the summit that early in the morning, which was nice.




This is Colorado Springs, about 20 miles away.


We tried to get pictures from all directions.






The town of Woodland Park.


Of course we had to get our “we were there” shot.


Katherine Lee Bates traveled to the summit of Pikes Peak in 1893 and she was so inspired that she wrote the words to “America the Beautiful.” This plaque commemorates the centennial of that event.


We heard the three toots from the train that signaled we had five minutes to get aboard. I grabbed two more donuts and a cup of coffee before boarding. The train doesn’t turn around at the top, so rather than look out from the same side on the way down as we did going up, I planned to negotiate a seat swap with the family sitting across from us. When I approached the gentleman, he agreed to swap seats, then he asked me, “Are you by any chance Rick Walter’s dad?” I was floored! I AM Rick Walter’s dad, and it turned out the gentleman is Joe, an old college mate of our son Rick’s. They were in the University of Illinois Marching Illini Drumline together. How cool is that! Joe said our faces looked familiar to him from Facebook, when we comment on our son’s posts. And when he heard us talking to another couple about living in an RV, he put two and two together. He and his family are visiting Colorado Springs from the Chicago area. Talk about a small world!

The trip down had some nice scenery that we could only see from across the aisle of the train on the way up.




Off in the distance is a working gold mine, near the town of Cripple Creek. They’re still mining gold around here!


We got back to the station, said goodbye to Joe and his family, and fought some horrendous traffic out of Manitou Springs. On the way home we took a drive through Old Colorado City, a small shopping district just west of Colorado Springs. We stopped there for some lunch, then drove about a half mile to the Ghost Town Wild West Museum. (We’ll cover that visit in tomorrow’s blog.)

We took a short detour to drive through downtown Colorado Springs.


It’s what I’d call a medium size city. It was easy to get around and the traffic was remarkably light for a workday. But it sure offers some beautiful views of the mountains when you’re headed west on Pikes Peak Ave.


So how did Pikes Peak differ from our trip to the top of Mount Evans a couple of weeks ago, you might ask? Mount Evans was much more primitive and less “touristy.” But Pikes Peak offered more beautiful scenery on the way up and while on top. Mount Evans is tucked in among mountains that are just about as high, while Pikes Peak almost sits on its own and seems much higher. (The technical term for that is “prominence”, how high a mountain is in relation to its surroundings.) We certainly enjoyed both, but if we had to pick one over the other, we’d pick Pikes Peak as the better experience. I’m torn about not driving up on the highway, but it was nice to ride the train and just enjoy the trip.

We got back home and cranked up the air conditioner. It was nice and cool yesterday, but today it was back up to around 90. When it gets over 80 we turn on the a/c. I hope you enjoyed our tour of Pikes Peak. We sure did!