Pikes Peak

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

There is so much information and history that I can write regarding Pike's Peak but Tommy, once again, said I would bore you.

What I will tell you is simply this: it is undeniably beautiful!

Ever since we arrived in Colorado Springs we have been disenchanted. We were hoping to buy real estate here and possibly have a second home here. We are not in love with this area. It seems the other side of the Continental Divide is more our aspiration. The Front Range, which is Colorado Springs, is not what either of us expected. It is nice but not what we want. We do not want a big population like West Palm Beach.

BUT... Pike's Peak makes us question our opinion. You cannot purchase real estate on the mountain but you can at the very bottom of the mountain and surrounding areas. The past 2 days were incredibly enjoyable driving around with Kaitlyn through the Garden of the Gods and downtown Co. Springs, and through Manatou Springs. Yet, I'm not sure it is  impressive enough to say I want to call it home.

Back to Pikes Peak..... It tops out at 14,115 feet. All the souvenirs state it is 14,110 but as of 1988 it has been measured as 4 feet higher. The road going up is narrow and there are a lot of switchbacks. They hold a race up and back down the mountain every year since 1929 and the quickest time up is just over 8 minutes. Meanwhile it will take you and me almost and hour to negotiate it.  The view is indescribable. You can literally see all of Colorado Springs.

They have a railroad that will take you up the mountain and let you out for 30 mins and then return you back to the bottom. It is called a COG Railroad. What that means is - instead of riding on wheels, it moves on gears. Its actually a very smart idea when it come to uphill climbing. We did not choose to ride it.

On the way back to base camp we stopped at the 'North Pole'. I have been bugging Tommy to go there since we arrived. I hate it when he is right, it SUCKED!  It is, again, another tourist trap! Its a mid sized amusement park for children age 12 and under. Not our style at all!

One other place we adventured to was - by Kaitlyn's choice - was  7 Falls. It was pretty but  no one told us that there are 224 steps to the top. They advertise, all over, even on billboards, that there is an elevator to the top and you can descend down after enjoying the view. Well, we get there and Kaitlyn decides to do the stairs. I'm not happy about this so I take her phone so I can snap pictures of her going up and hand her my inhaler. Remember, we are at almost 9000 feet in altitude and she is asthmatic. She takes off, me and Helen are wrecks just watching her stop and take a breath every 25 feet. Finally when she is out of sight we run over to the elevator. We told her we would meet her on top of the fall. The elevator that we took - took us to another - smaller - fall. Different mountain than what Kaitlyn has been climbing.

Now, I'm totally worried. She thinks we are going to meet her, I have her phone and we haven't seen her in almost an hour. So I went into the gift shop and asked to speak to a ranger. Guess what??? They don't have any rangers! You are at your own risk! Now I'm really freaking. Helen calms me down and I say, how can I get up there without taking the stairs - there is NO WAY I can climb the stairs, even if  I wanted to.

I guess they sensed my panic and sent the 'maintenance man' up all 224 stairs to look for her. Wouldn't you know it, she was fine and on her way down when he caught up with her? She wanted to kill me for embarrassing her by sending help, but I was frantic. Oh, and she dropped my inhaler in the water fall too. Anyway, we have really good pictures.

Okay, that's it for this blog. Kaitlyn leaves for home at 6:40am tomorrow so we have an early rise. Thanks for reading and tomorrow Ill blog the rest.  We saw this red fox in the parking lot of a gift shop on Pike's Peak. They are abundant here, and very, very cute!