Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is a “14er”, which means it’s one of the few mountains in Colorado with an elevation of over 14,000 feet. And it’s conveniently located just west of Colorado Springs. There are people that like to hike and climb these gigantic mountains, but for the rest of us, Pikes Peak’s attraction is that someone decided to built a 19 mile road to the top. It’s not a gravel mountain road either, this is a toll road and is well maintained with amenities at 6 and 12 miles up. Every year they hold a race called the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, where drivers race from mile 7 to the summit. Having now driven the race route, I have a new understanding of how crazy that is. Just as a side note, we were there exactly a week after the race this year, and you would never know it happened. I was actually looking for any trace and except for a very few skid marks, even the starting area looked untouched by a major race.
The switch backs on the way up…and back down
As far as the driving experience for normal people, it’s something where the nervousness of being less than a foot away from falling off a mountain is offset by the excitement of actually driving, as straight up as possible, up a mountain. It’s steep. And there are many, many switchbacks.
As I said before, there are stops, but unless the bathroom is needed, the point is to get to the top. There was construction going on when we were there, and because of the lack of parking during it, they were running shuttle buses from mile 16 to 19, the summit.
The less than inspirational view from the observation deck while under construction
By mile 16, the lack of oxygen starts to get noticeable. At the top, there is only 60% of the oxygen at sea level. There is an observation deck at the summit, along with a gift shop and snack bar where you can buy their famous high altitude doughnuts, but it’s more impressive when you just wonder around the top of the mountain.
You can never go wrong with a panorama at 14,000 ft
There are obviously spectacular views everywhere. You really do feel as if you are on top of the world.
The drive down ends up being more worrisome since you are relying totally on your brakes. Luckily we were in a new truck which almost felt like it knew we were on steep descents and knew how much to engine brake us to stay around 20 mph the whole way down in 2nd gear. It was actually pretty impressive. At the mile 6 rest stop they actually stop everyone to check their brakes temperatures before continuing down.
Once we got below the tree line to what felt like safer roads, we found this bigfoot along the side.
The temperature at the top compared to the bottom was much different. Even though it was a warm day in Colorado, at the top of Pikes Peak we were bundled up for a chilly day. Thankfully it was a warm day on the ground, I can’t imagine how cold it could get at the top on a cold day. Again, we had great visibility and could see for miles. This was the perfect day for a steep climb.
