Pikes Peak or Bust!

Thank you to another one of my friends for the wonderful title :)

First of all though, I have to say that my dear friend Rissa has been having fun researching yet again, and sent me info I was actually wondering about.  I guess she too was curious about the elevations along our journey and in this current area, so here are some totally useless (but rather interesting) facts about exactly that (and thank you Rissa!).

- The average elevation through our first 5 states was 600 to 900 feet.
- The average elevation through Kansas was 2000 feet (so clearly a gradual climb)
- The average elevation in Colorado is 6,800 feet with 3,350 the lowest and Mt Elbert the highest at 14,433 ft.
- Colorado Springs is at 6,008 ft
- Woodland Park (near our campground) is at 8,437 ft.

Now don't you all feel smarter for knowing that!

Rissa's comment on the last point; "You must have been going uphill quite steeply from Colorado Springs I would think to go up nearly 2,500 feet in about 20 miles."

I just have to point out that between the clouds, the very windy road at 5pm (ie lots of cars), with a speed limit of 55mph, and Clare trying to concentrate on the road, she didn't even notice how quickly we were ascending.  However, this morning, when we were heading down again, it was very clear just how quickly that elevation changed!

Ok, back to the original topic of this post.  The number one reason why we stopped here was to go up Pike's Peak (aka "America's Mountain").  There are a number of ways to get up said mountain, the most common being to drive (a 19 mile drive one way with over 100 switch-backs), to hike it, or to take the Cog Railway.

Well, I don't blame Clare for not wanting to drive it; how can one enjoy the view if one has to stay focused on those darn switch-backs.  What I don't get is why she didn't want to hike it.  I mean really, its only about a 7,000+ ft ascent from the beginning of the trail to the summit.  What's her problem?  I mean Hyuana Picchu was only 1,000 ft ascent, so just multiply that by 7 and its all good, right?  But no, she didn't want to do that, so I settled for the Cog Railway instead, which turned out to be pretty cool as we learned all kinds of fun facts from our conductor (none of which I'll bore you with, aren't you glad).

Colorado Springs and Kansas behind me!

I do have one question though.  Is a "peak" not a pointy thing?  The top of Pike's Peak is anything but pointy.  Its as flat as a parking lot... maybe because that's exactly what it is :).   Yep, sitting at 14,110 feet is probably the worlds highest parking lot (although don't quote me on that as I have not actually looked it up or anything).  Also up there... a gift shop and cafe!  Go figure!  We wouldn't want to just enjoy the nature or the view now would we?


We circled the summit (aka parking lot) taking all the required pictures, helping others take their group shots, and even getting a couple taken of Clare and I together.  Now most of you must know how much Clare hates getting her picture taken, but I guess she hates feeling ungrateful or rude to complete strangers even more, because both times she was asked if she'd like one of her and her "bear" (insulting, but I will let it pass), she said yes.  On the train ride down, she checked the photos and discovered this one, and even agreed that not only could I post it, but it definitely HAD to be posted.  I think you can see why :D.



The train takes over 3 hours round trip, so once we were back down into Manitou Springs (the small town where the station is), I decided to make Clare find all the Mineral Springs in the town (besides, I figured it would keep her out of the shops).  There are 10 of them spread out throughout the town, and the guide suggests finding the Welcome Centre where you could get a proper map and a cup for tasting each one (they all  have different mineral compositions so all taste different).  This seemed to make a lot of sense, except that we had looked at the guide online, and now had no idea where the Welcome Centre was.

After walking the length of the main street once, circling around to try again, we came across one of the springs entirely by accident.  Clare took the photo of me, and then the photo of the map beside it, and that became our guide.  I'm not sure what kind of map they would have given us, but the sign version was not really to scale and left a lot of guess work as to where the big dots on it were meant to be.  So... it became a scavenger hunt!  It took two hours and getting drenched in a sudden thunderstorm (that disappeared as quick as it came), but we found them all, and took photos of me at all but one of them.  The only thing we never found... the welcome centre!! 

By the time we were done, and had climbed back up the hill to our car, it was nearly 4pm, Clare was tired and wet, and so she vetoed the next planned stop and returned to the campground.  I don't know what her problem was!  I was perfectly dry, having been neatly stored in her backpack when it rained ;).

Look!  It's MY Store!

I just want to say thank you to those friends who have written and given me suggestions of things to see.  I wish we had more time to spend here so that we could see it all!  At least we still have another full day here, so I'm looking forward to a whole new adventure tomorrow.

Whatever!