Pike's Peak or Bust



This is the train going up in front of us.



After we got back from the zoo, we grabbed our sweatshirts and headedout with Jeff for our adventure to the top of Pike's Peak.  We decided to take the cog train up to the summit.  You can also drive it, but without guard rails all the way up, it was better to take the train.

First, we drove to the train station to make sure we knew where it was, and then we went back into downtown Manitou Springs to get lunch.  Manitou Springs is a cute little town with lots of restaurants and shops. We found a nice place where we could sit outside.  Jeff and I got burgers and the kids got french dip sandwiches.



At the summit

The train you ride to the top is not a steam train; it looks more like a trolley to me.  It's called a cog train because in addition to the rails, there is a cog wheel under the train that meets the cog grooves running in between the tracks.  The seats are wooden and to be honest, not very comfortable.  I sat on my sweatshirt and used part of it as a back cushion.

Because we were going to climb from about 6,000 feet to over 14,000 feet high, we all drank lots of water on the way up.

It's a beautiful ride to the top.  The train doesn't go very fast.  Along the way up, you can see the remains of two trapper cabins dating back to the 1800's.  We also saw some bighorn sheep and marmots after we cleared the timberline. 

Once you get to the top, you have about 25 minutes to check out the observation deck, get snack at the snack bar, or buy some souvenirs in the gift shop.  They have freshly made, warm doughnuts in the snack bar and I had to buy some for the ride back.  It's a beautiful view from up there.  It was only 53 degrees at the top, much cooler than the 80 degree temperatures at the bottom.

The ride down is the same as the ride up.  We saw more bighorn sheep and marmots on the ride down.  The sheep were running along the rocks, which was great to watch.

Garden of the Gods

After a mid-day break at the campground, we headed out to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  It's a free local park full of red rock formations that look completely different than the mountains around them.

It's open until 8:00 p.m., and we got there around 6:15 p.m.  We went to the Visitor Center first to get map and some general information.  They have a movie, but we didn't have time for it.

We drove the loop and parked in a parking lot so we could walk around a bit.  They have paved sidewalks that you can walk on to see the formations up close.  Here are some pictures from our walk.

Weeping Indian Woman - look for the image of
the woman's face on the left. 

Goodbye, Estes Park

Jeff had a 6:30 a.m. conference call this morning, so he had to drive down toward Estes Park to get a good cell signal.  I woke up early too, and started packing things up in preparation for our drive to Grand Junction, Colorado.  The kids wrote out some postcards.

Because we're in the RV, we'll have to drive back down to Denver and then over to Grand Junction on I-70 West. There's going to be some steep places along the drive out of Denver, which ought to be interesting.

Dinner and Entertainment for the Kids

Jeff took the kids to the pool while I worked on dinner.  Tonight, we had grilled chicken, potatoes with rosemary roasted in foil packets on the grill, and tossed salad.  My treat was a few bottles of Breckenridge Brewery's SummerBright Ale, the beer I first had at the brewery before the baseball game.  We found it in the liquor store by the grocery store in Bennett, the next town over from where we're camping.

The name of the grocery store is King Soopers.  Weird.  But it was a nice grocery store - and huge.

While I was grilling and the kids were drying off from the pool, some campground employees came by in a golf cart asking if the kids wanted to ride on a "super soaker hay ride" tonight.  Ruth and Henry were in!  The employees gave Jeff and I water balloons to throw when the hayride came by. 

The kids had a ball.  Not only did people throw water balloons, some turned their campsite hoses on and blasted the kids when they went by.  Henry and Ruth loved it and want to do it again tomorrow night.

The campground has a frozen marble slab to mix cookies and candy into ice cream, so for dessert tonight, the kids went and got some.  Ruth got mint chocolate chip with gummy bears and Henry got chocolate ice cream with marshmallows mixed in. 

The weather cooled off enough to make for perfect lounging outside.  There weren't any mosquitoes like last night, but we had a citronella candle and bug spray just in case.  The only negative were the flies that thought our dinner looked delicious.  The kids had fun using the fly swatter trying to kill them.  The last count I remember from Jeff was 26 flies he had killed.

Everyone is is bed now, and I should be too.  Tomorrow morning we're headed out to Golden, Colorado to drive the Lariat Loop.  It's a driving tour that will take about two hours, going through the Rockies and stopping at historic markers and scenic overlooks.  Jeff did the research to find it and I think it will be great.  It's time to get up in the mountains!