Pikes Peak

At 14,115 feet elevation, Pikes Peak is America's Mountain.  Today we took the 19-mile highway to the clouds to explore Colorado's most famous peak.

We've driven on many winding, scenic highways in the last week, and it was much the same at first.

But once we got above the tree line, it got a whole lot more intense.  There are no guard rails along most of the road, and looking down....whoa!!  It was a long, long way down!  The speed limit was 

25 m.p.h. much of the way, and less in places.

George said that he hadn't expected the drive to be so intense and scary.  Driving up, and not knowing what was coming, and sometimes just seeing blue sky ahead, before the road curved, was really freaky!

When we got to the parking lot at the top, we put on our parkas, as it was -10 C up there.  We went into the Visitor Center and restaurant, then walked around outside.  We both felt light-headed and I felt dizzy and nauseated from the altitude.

After about half an hour, we went and sat in the car, had some snacks, said a prayer, and started back down.

Going down was much better, what a relief!  In all, it was a great trip!

At the foot of Pikes Peak, is North Pole.  Who knew?  I thought that was way up in northern Alaska.  Apparently this is where Santa's workshop is.

We also went to "Garden of the Gods", and did some walking there enjoying the scenery.

And then we went to Helen Hunt Falls.  There was a 1/3 mile hike there, with some elevation, so I was puffing by the time I got to the top.

We have tickets booked to go up Pikes Peak on the cog railway tomorrow morning.  I'm sure it'll be exciting!