Climbing The Mountain (The Easy Way)

It's hard to believe that this trip is slowly coming to a close. But, we have one more full day to go. Today we started our day with a drive around north Colorado Springs and saw from a distance the Air Force Academy and saw a great view of Pike's Peak. Our first stop of the day was to be in Manitou Springs just a few minutes from our hotel. We took the Cograil Train to the top of Pike's Peak. The entire trip up and back down took about 3 hours and 20 minutes. Of course, we got an abundance of information about the mountain. Several ideas that we had about the peak was totally wrong, so we learned quite a bit. There are only 3 cograils in the U.S. One in Michigan, one in New Hampshire, and this one in Colorado Springs. It just so happens that Jacob has been on 2 of the 3 in the last month.

First of all, Pike's Peak is not the highest point in the range here in Colorado. It is the most visible and recognizable of all of the peaks. There are actually 53 peaks that are over 14,000 feet in the range and Pike's Peak is #31 for the highest point. Pike's Peak is at 14,110 feet. The ride up was absolutely beautiful. The unnerving part was that at several points we were at a 25% grade. That is pretty steep. At these points, we were probably only going about 3-5 miles per hour. The conductor told us many stories about the railway and the pioneers who forged through the forest and rock. When we reached the top, the air was unbelievable thin. The kids didn't do much running around on top while we were there. We had taken water bottles with us because one can easily get dehydrated at that altitude. We only stayed about 45 minutes because a lot of people will start to experience certain high altitude sicknesses. So, we had just enough time to walk around the top, take about 20 pictures, use the restroom and return to the train. We also ate a warm donut while on top. It was the thing to do.

Interesting notes about the weather. The temperature had dropped 30 degrees from where we started. We knew that this would be a possibility, so we packed jackets. The temperature on top was about 49 degrees which wasn't bad except it was very windy and overcast. We got several shots of storms approaching. It is amazing what you can see this high up. The rain shafts were clearly visible. As we were heading back to the train, it started hailing; lots and lots of hail fell very fast. The clouds were pretty low and we were pretty high, so the water was frozen. By the time our train started moving the thunder and lightning had started, and as we were traveling, it looked like it had snowed there was so much hail on the ground. What's interesting is that we saw hail last night while at dinner, so we have seen a ton of hail in less than 24 hours. In some parts of town last night, golf ball size hail along with flooding was reported.

We then returned back to the location of our hotel and found a Red Robin and had dinner. Jacob and I will finish off the day and start the next day with the midnight showing of Harry Potter. Yes, we will be out with all of the rest of the crazies not being able to wait for a decent hour to view the movie.

Tomorrow we head to Denver to fly home. On the way to the airport we will stop off at the Denver Mint and take a 20 minute tour. Hope Jacob and I can stay awake.

Alabama home bound . . .