Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs.
We had a good day. Kaye and I headed to Colorado Springs, arriving a little before noon, and parking in the downtown area. The town had some nice features, but generally seemed like your classic American small town, with nothing of particular note.
We walked around a little on this quiet Sunday, and decided to instead check out the old part of town, Old Colorado City. Now that was far more interesting, with some lovely action and a bunch of interesting stores, including a really great store, filled with Mexican pottery, rugs, day of the dead figures, and much. much (much) more. I love those stores, as did Bev. This was one of the best. Live band playing in the park on a Sunday mid-day, in a very lively section of town.
We enjoyed the old town, and then moved on to visit Garden of the Gods, just outside of the town, not quite knowing what to expect. Incredible and very large park, with so many trails and so much effort into creating and maintaining this beautiful area, with orange-red and white sandstone rock formations … and at no cost. Incredible place to visit.
We reluctantly left Garden of the Gods, and headed toward Pikes Peak, which is even more incredible at 14,000 feet. On the way, we passed through a great town, Manitou Springs, which was a great looking town, and very busy. Lots of great things to photograph, but there was no place to easily park, and we were sort of swept along by the traffic through the town. We both agreed this was our kind of town, and I’m very sorry we didn’t get a chance to explore it or take photos, plus we wanted to get to Pikes Peak. But, if I can, I’d like to return to Manitou Springs at some point and spend some time.
Pikes Peak isn’t too far outside of Colorado Springs, but the mountain road, at just 16 or so miles to the top, takes an hour or so to climb, as the well-paved road becomes more and more perilous, with constant s-bends and u-turn switchbacks, as the road rose above the tree lines and clouds. Can’t really travel faster than 5-15 mph, and it gets more and more hairy as you near the top. Most of the time, as I was driving, I’m staring at the blue sky dotted with clouds, not above me, but directly in front of me, at eye level. Phew. The drive just keeps going, up and round the mountain, up and round, on and on, hairier and hairier. The payoff was finally reaching the peak, at 14,115 feet. Despite clouds in the sky, which were actually beautiful in themselves, we had perfect weather, with great views.
Pikes Place is another place we loved, and were reluctant to leave. But Colorado City, where we are spending the night, was 2 hours away, and it was already 5:30. So, down we drove. Not as heart gripping as the journey up, but pretty hairy just the same. The only way to safely drive it is in very low gear, even in first at times… which is exactly what the park ranger said when we paid our fee to enter at the bottom of the peak.
A couple of miles down, there’s a mandatory brake check, where a park ranger takes the temperature of the brake rotors, because of the risk of brake fade or failure if the rotors get too hot due to the constant braking while driving down. Our brakes were pretty hot, although could handle more, but nevertheless, the ranger recommended a 15 minute rest to let the brakes cool, as we had 13 more miles to go, and were on the steepest part of the peak. He too, said the staff go into the lowest gear when taking those u-bends, avoiding brake use as much as possible. After a short break, we continued on our way, choosing not to stop at the many rest and viewing stops on the way down as we wouldn’t be getting to Colorado City until 7:30 as it was. Too bad, we didn’t have more time.
We hit some very heavy rain for a short while on the drive, but arrived here in Colorado City around 7:30, right on time, checked in, and in this tiny town there was really nowhere to eat at this point, so it was sandwiches from the Circle K over the road. It was a very good day.