Road Trip Recap {Part 3}
Colorado Springs is a wonderful place to visit with so many things to see and do. After being in the car for so long, we were looking forward to walking and being outside. Our first stop was Garden of the Gods. This park has free admission and very nice paved trails.
We spent the afternoon driving up Pike’s Peak. What an amazing place! We stopped at Crystal Creek Reservoir and the kids waded into the icy cold water. The view of Pike’s Peak is spectacular from here.
We saw a mule deer and two marmots near the top. And with the exception of one antique car being broken down just before a hairpin turn near the summit, we didn’t have any scary moments. (I still cannot for the life of me figure out why someone would take a car like that up there! He had blocks behind the wheels to keep it from rolling backward. Which means he was prepared. Which means this kind of thing has probably happened to him before. I would love to have been in the room when the AAA dispatcher got that call!)
Once we got to the summit, Henry said he wasn’t feeling too well. The air is thin, and the brochure said that altitude sickness is common. Lightheaded and a little nauseated, he opted to sit on the rocks while we took a few pictures. We watched the cog train pull in and all the visitors disembarked. Inside the café, we all drank some water and ordered their famous High Altitude Recipe doughnuts.
And once we were warmed up, we got back in the car for the trip down. I have always driven cars with an automatic transmission and completely left them in “Drive” to do all the shifting for me. But on this trip, I knew I would need to downshift or the brakes would overheat. And so, shifting down to first gear (and sometimes up to second) I let the engine do all the hard work of slowing us down. There is a brake checkpoint station about halfway down, and mine were doing just great so we kept going to the base of the mountain.
There are several ways to experience Pike’s Peak. You can drive up like we did, you can take the cog train, or you can hike or cycle up. Driving is probably the fastest way to go. Personally, I can only dream of being fit enough to hike that mountain.
The kids enjoyed exploring the rock formations, climbing and hiding and just being silly.
We spent the afternoon driving up Pike’s Peak. What an amazing place! We stopped at Crystal Creek Reservoir and the kids waded into the icy cold water. The view of Pike’s Peak is spectacular from here.
We saw a mule deer and two marmots near the top. And with the exception of one antique car being broken down just before a hairpin turn near the summit, we didn’t have any scary moments. (I still cannot for the life of me figure out why someone would take a car like that up there! He had blocks behind the wheels to keep it from rolling backward. Which means he was prepared. Which means this kind of thing has probably happened to him before. I would love to have been in the room when the AAA dispatcher got that call!)
Once we got to the summit, Henry said he wasn’t feeling too well. The air is thin, and the brochure said that altitude sickness is common. Lightheaded and a little nauseated, he opted to sit on the rocks while we took a few pictures. We watched the cog train pull in and all the visitors disembarked. Inside the café, we all drank some water and ordered their famous High Altitude Recipe doughnuts. 
And once we were warmed up, we got back in the car for the trip down. I have always driven cars with an automatic transmission and completely left them in “Drive” to do all the shifting for me. But on this trip, I knew I would need to downshift or the brakes would overheat. And so, shifting down to first gear (and sometimes up to second) I let the engine do all the hard work of slowing us down. There is a brake checkpoint station about halfway down, and mine were doing just great so we kept going to the base of the mountain.
There are several ways to experience Pike’s Peak. You can drive up like we did, you can take the cog train, or you can hike or cycle up. Driving is probably the fastest way to go. Personally, I can only dream of being fit enough to hike that mountain.
Comments
Hugs,
Betsy
I just love traveling out west...everything is so big and dramatic!