Pike's Peak, Colorado

Remember that one of the reasons why Glenn and I went out to Utah was because one of my best friends was getting married?  She was getting married in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  I didn't want to make that trip alone and since I hadn't really been there since I was a teenager, my parents came too.   Plus my friend was more than happy to have my parents come to her wedding as well.  I was glad to have them come along.  My dad drove the entire time, we listened to more books on CD--Wizard of Oz, 101 Dalmatians, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--and we got a little mini vacation with my parents!

We left Thursday around 11am and arrived late in Colorado Springs that same night.  The next morning we decided to go to the top of Pike's Peak--the famous mountain in that area.  When I was a teenager we drove up as a family, and my dad has hiked it with my brother.  He had mentioned going to the top by way of the Cog Railway.  I was always hesitant of it because I envisioned a really steep train track going up the face of the mountain...and that did not appeal to me at all.  But I figured that it would be fun to try it and to show Glenn the very top of a very tall mountain.  

So up we went.  

We had these cool seats that were at the front of one of the cars--our seats folded down right in front of the doors.  We could see out the windows well and had the tour guide right in front of us.

Sadly I can't really remember much about what our tour guide said, but it was good--that much I do remember, and I bought a little $4 book that tells a lot of what he told us.  The train went fast enough so we weren't bored, but slow enough for us to get pictures and to take in the beauty that was all around us.  These definitely are the rocky mountains!

This group of rocks was called Santa's Sleigh because it kind of looks like Santa in a sleigh with some of his reindeer.  Can you see it?

I took some pictures of some of the elevation markers along our way.

It got colder and colder the higher we went.  We had come from very hot Texas and I thankfully grabbed two light sweater/jacket things for me--unfortunately none for Glenn--what was I thinking?  So he had to wear one of mine.  :)

It was neat to see the terrain change the higher we went in elevation.  First we had all kinds of trees surrounding us.  Then it was just fir trees, then no trees at all--once we got above the tree line.

This I do remember from the tour guide:  this path you can see is from when they had horse and carriage rides up to the top--like from a hundred years ago!  The grass grows so slowly up there that the path is still very visible today.  I can't believe the bravery of people going up in such simple ways.   

In the background of this picture was a mine.  

When we drove up when I was a teenager, there was part of the drive that was a dirt road.  They had finished paving it and this was the new road.  I remember being kind of scared on that drive.  My mom definitely was.  It was a long, windy, narrow drive.  I remember we bought a magnet that said, "I survived the drive to the top!"  And that's pretty much how we felt about it.  :D  This really was a very pleasant way to go to the top.  I wasn't nervous or scared at all.

Finally we reached the top!

The sign here says 14,110 feet but actually the mountain is 14,115 feet.  They just haven't changed any of their signs.

And of course we took lots of pictures!

At the top they had a little memorial to Katherine Lee Bates who wrote the words to "America the Beautiful" after coming to the top of Pike's Peak.  

"For purple mountain majesties..."

Glenn liked that there was a little bit of snow and slush up there still--in August!!

More pictures of our view from the top.  We could see the city of Colorado Springs in the foreground and  way out on the horizon we could see Nebraska!  

This was part of the trail that my dad and brother hiked.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked better of my dad--so you get both.  

Isn't the view amazing?

At the gift shop up there, they advertised yummy donuts.  We were hungry so we got some to eat on the way down.

Also on the way down, there were some guys sitting near us that wanted to sing a song by John  Denver.  They had all recently met and were having the time of their lives.  Enjoy a snippet of their singing.  :D  Even though they weren't the best singers, they sure were entertaining!

A couple times on the trip our tour guide would have to jump out and flip the switch for another train.  So a couple of times we had to stop and let the other train pass by.  

Down at the bottom I took a few more pictures that showed how the cog railway worked.

It was pretty cool to be up there on the top of the mountain!

That evening we went to a wedding dinner for my friend.  

The next morning before the actual wedding and reception, we drove around where we used to live.  We showed Glenn our old house...

...and our view of Pike's Peak.  When we told him that we had been up on the very top just yesterday he was amazed!  Seeing it so high from a different perspective was really neat.

And we showed him one of the schools I went to when I lived there.  

It was kind of fun to drive around those places.  I only lived there for 3 years and it has grown and changed a lot.  That's another reason why I was glad to have my parents with us.  They knew the city much better than I did--I never drove there so I didn't know the streets very well.  I would've gotten lost I think if I had come on my own.