FOURTEEN THOUSAND FEET AND CLIMBING

Today we’re in Castle Rock, Colorado and staying with extended family.  Breakfasted on the deck with the sun on our backs and a lovely all –American breakfast of waffles and bacon and syrup, with blueberries - very yummy.

After some deliberating we headed to Pikes Peak – this is a famous mountain – which they call a fourteener – which means it is one of the peaks in the state of Colorado that is over 14 thousand feet – yep –a biggie.

And we drove up it – well actually our host did!  Man oh man it was steep and wound up and around for 19 miles!  Awesome.  The treeline was at 11,000 feet and then we hit bits of snow.  There is a cog train that goes up the side or you can drive – we missed the earlier train so drove up.  It’s slow – no more than about 20 mph at a time.  The top of the mountain was dotted with snow.  The air temperature had dropped considerably – and we were in summer clothes! 

Beware of the local wildlife!

Garden of the gods rock formations

Cog railway arriving at 14 thousand feet - you can see the ground way below!

A resevoir - not clear because of the horrendous local fires last week - 500 homes destroyed! -

Looking down from the top - again hazy because of the smoke residue

These hay bales were dotted all the way up in preparation for  next week's race

At the top there is a rest stop where you can go in and buy freshly made donuts and a hot drink.  The air at the top is very thin and when I got out of the vehicle I felt really quite dizzy – yes different from my normal state of mind.  Just as we wandered around the lookout points the train arrived up along with about a hundred or more tourists, so we quickly found our table and got our donuts.

All the way along were sign posts to watch out for  - rattle snakes, brown bears, coyotes, bats, long horn sheep, and bobcats!  We did however on our way home through a rural area see several dear, a heron AND a coyote – so cool!

Huge storm clouds threatened in the late afternoon so we headed back down, and at the half way mark the rangers check your brake temperature and if too hot, you are required to stop and wait before heading down any further. 

Next weekend at Pikes Peak is the famous hill climb race and they were setting up for it.  Will try and catch it on tv next week and know that we were just there.

On the way to Pikes Peak we went to the Garden of the Gods, a lovely rocky garden area, with red rock and walkways. 

Back home just before the thunder and lightning struck – huge thick heavy black clouds covering miles and miles, though it only rained for about five minutes.

Heading east tomorrow

See you here again

Jane and Neil