Day 9 - Friday 5/29/2015 - Colorado Springs & Pikes Peak
We headed south today, from our Hampton Inn in Golden, to Colorado Springs as a break from the hiking. Our goal was to take the cog railway up Pikes Peak and to see the Garden of the God's park.
We made it to Colorado Springs in time to take the first train of the day up Pikes Peak! The areas around Colorado Springs, and all of Colorado, had gotten a good bit of snow earlier in the week and we quickly started to see snow on the sides of the railway. Getting closer to the summit, the snow as over the windows of the car in a lot of places. We only made it up to about 13,000ft and were told the plows were still working on the line to the summit. We stayed in our car at that location for some photos and then headed down to a spot called Four Mile, which was roughly half way between the base and the summit and at an elevation of 9655ft. Here we waited for a good while (the time we were supposed to be at the summit I suspect and several trains went around us. We heard that the second train of the day did make the summit… There was a nice family that sat across from us. I believe one couple was local and the other were their friends from college.
Once we got down back to Colorado Springs, we had lunch at a local joint called The Dive then headed for the Garden of the Gods. We hit the visitor center first then drove the loop around the park, stopping a doing a few of the trails. The garden is always a favorite of mine, having been several time but I believe this was the first visit for E. We then headed back to Denver, stopping at Chick-fil-a for a quick bite for dinner.
We made it to Colorado Springs in time to take the first train of the day up Pikes Peak! The areas around Colorado Springs, and all of Colorado, had gotten a good bit of snow earlier in the week and we quickly started to see snow on the sides of the railway. Getting closer to the summit, the snow as over the windows of the car in a lot of places. We only made it up to about 13,000ft and were told the plows were still working on the line to the summit. We stayed in our car at that location for some photos and then headed down to a spot called Four Mile, which was roughly half way between the base and the summit and at an elevation of 9655ft. Here we waited for a good while (the time we were supposed to be at the summit I suspect and several trains went around us. We heard that the second train of the day did make the summit… There was a nice family that sat across from us. I believe one couple was local and the other were their friends from college.
Once we got down back to Colorado Springs, we had lunch at a local joint called The Dive then headed for the Garden of the Gods. We hit the visitor center first then drove the loop around the park, stopping a doing a few of the trails. The garden is always a favorite of mine, having been several time but I believe this was the first visit for E. We then headed back to Denver, stopping at Chick-fil-a for a quick bite for dinner.
