Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods

Today we are going to hit the two big bucket list places for each of us in Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods. We started off the morning nice and slow as we had the whole day here and no real schedule. We had decided to go to Pikes Peak first, so off we went. It was a quick drive from our hotel and before we knew it, we were driving up the mountain.

Since they are doing construction all over the place at the peak, we found out that we would have to take a shuttle bus to the top from either the 13 or 16 mile mark of the total 19 miles up. Of course we drove as high up as we could go and parked at the 16 mile mark at the parking lot for Devil’s Garden.

They are big on masks and social distancing out here, so we ended up getting on a bus with only 2 other couples. The last 3 miles went by pretty quickly as these drivers don’t seem to even be fazed by the fact that if they swerve 2 feet to the right, we’re all dead.

As we approached the peak, the construction showed it’s majestic face. They are rebuilding everything. They should be done by May 2021, but I can’t say I really recommend coming here before then unless you just happen to be out here like we are. Unless you want to see some high altitude construction, which if you are, the operation is impressive. I can’t imagine using all that heavy equipment so close to the edge of a 14,000 foot mountain, but I guess they get used to it. We also saw full size tractor trailers barreling down the mountain like it was nothing.

We were dropped off in the mud outside the current old summit house in the middle of a construction zone. No social distancing in there. The observation deck was at the rear of the building, through the shop and snack bar. We were there to see the view from 14,115 feet and went right for it. It was less than impactful. There was about a 12 by 5 foot area, surrounding by construction that you couldn’t really see past, populated by groups of sad people sitting on the ground or ledge, eating their crappy snack bar cheeseburgers and doughnuts.

The doughnuts are apparently a big deal as they are made at the summit and that’s supposed to make them taste or look different. So after snapping a few pictures out back, we figured we would wait in line for 10 minutes for a couple of these famous doughnuts. Well, they were doughnuts anyway… not as good as we have a home, just a pain ass doughnut. So the white knuckle drive up 16 miles of mountain and the weird little shuttle trip was really paying off so far.

After we finished our uninspired doughnuts, we noticed people off a bit in the distance on the other side of the summit climbing around on the boulders that cover everywhere that there isn’t construction. As there is no real system in place up there, you are allowed to wonder through an active and very busy construction zone to get to a small but well worn trail that hugs a chain link fence that in some places was less than 3 feet wide, muddy, slick, and sloped toward a probably 300 foot shear drop onto a boulder field. At one point as we walked over, there was guy on a giant forklift right beside us lifting what was probably a ton of rock. On the walk back we almost got swiped by a bulldozer too.

Having said all that, once we were wondering through the rocks and boulders, construction behind us, it was awesome. It then became worth all of the crap to get there. It might not have been the best time to go, but it just doesn’t matter when you’re up there looking out over Colorado. Just seeing the perfect Rocky Mountains off in the distance makes it worth it. It’s amazing that we had to drive so far to get from there to here and have that range still dominate the view. Pictures obviously don’t do any of it justice, but we kept taking them anyway.

You could wrap around a decent portion of the summit on this little muddy trail, and through most of it, you can walk out pretty far on the rocks. It was a little iffy as there is nothing for safety anywhere, but we still braved a few trips out, just not too close to the edge.

After we took it in as much as we could, we headed back to the summit house shop to dump a bunch of money on hats, shirts, cups, stickers… We might have gone a little nuts on buying stuff, but I think most people do. Not when the first get there, but after they stand out on a boulder, looking face to face at the surrounding mountains, from the top of the highest one around.

Once we had our bags full of souvenirs, we got right in a van to take us back down to the truck. This trip was a bit longer since we were now going down. Engine braking is key here, as we found out again later in the truck. The van screamed the whole way down at about 20 mph. But we got down to the truck safe and after wondering around for a second, we hopped in to drive the rest of the way down ourselves.

It was another white knuckle ride down. Not so much that it was scary, as we just rode in a van with a guy who did worse like it was nothing, more that you just have to keep a tight grip on the wheel. At least I did. But like I said before, engine braking made it a pretty easy trip. About halfway down they even stop you and check your brake temps before you continue on. My brakes were fine as I barely used them. That Ram stayed right at 20 in 1st gear no matter how steep the downhill stretch was.

Once we were down, we wanted to get something to eat as all we had so far was a couple of doughnuts. We ended up in Manitou Springs which is a little town with a main street full of shops and cafes, but no parking. We found a couple places but a lot of them only did curbside, no eating in. We ended up finding a Sonic just outside of the touristy part of town and pulled right in. We both got tots with our meals, and although it doesn’t sound very exciting, we were excited to eat them. I got about three down before I dumped them on the floor.

After we ate, it was time to get to Garden of the Gods. It was a pretty quick shot from where we were so we were there in no time. It’s a popular place as it’s free and technically a city park. Kacie was very excited as soon as we saw the first formation above the tree tops. Although the parking lot was pretty full, we ended up lucking out and getting a pretty good spot. Right off the bat, we saw a couple deer just hanging out. The animals out here are just not scared of people.

Garden of the Gods is very close to town. You probably even say in town. So it’s popular with tourists and locals. We even saw a guy in full USA gear on a very expensive racing bike we are pretty sure was an Olympic biker. There are also rock climbers around, as well as horses. A lot of people use this park, there was a wedding that was just wrapping up when we got to the overlook they were doing it on. But even though there was a wide variety out, we didn’t have much of a problem. Some pull offs can only handle a car or two, but since it only takes 10-15 minutes to drive the loop around the park, you can go around again to try to catch what you missed last time. I think we did a total of three loops, to hit offshoot features and to get a look at a good overlook of the central park.

The central park is where most people go. It has most impressive and largest formations in a fairly compact area. There are numerous trails, heading in all directions, starting from here. But the most popular trails are the few that circle in and out of the rocks. We wrapped back and forth around the main area and took it all in. It was hot this afternoon, but it wasn’t too bad hiking around.

After looking through the central park, we jumped back in the car and wondered around the various roads to various features.

A lot of the pull offs are good vantage points for taking in the huge formations as a whole. When you’re in the central park, you are right beside the rock. Which means it’s like walking through New York, you can’t really get the scale, you just can see that there is a giant object right beside you that extends hundreds of feet up. Hundreds might be an exaggeration. Point is, it’s almost looking at two different things depending on if your close or far. It was nice to get both perspectives.

Once we saw as much as we could see without hardcore hiking and climbing, we headed back to the hotel to change. Once we did, we started looking around for a place to eat and found the Airplane Restaurant. Since our hotel was close to the airport, it was only a couple minutes away. It’s a nice place, as Kacie said, they went so crazy with the theme it went past cheesy and back to cool. You can guess the theme, but it is a lot. The walls are covered with airplane pictures, there are model planes hanging from every ceiling, and you can eat in a plane. The plane seems to have been gutted, and then a building was built around it. The plane is mostly outside of the building, however, the right side wing, complete with engine and landing gear, create a big chunk of the main seating area’s ceiling. It’s a pretty cool place. They pretend they all work at an airline and have old-timey newspaper looking menus.

We didn’t get to eat in the plane as it was full, so we just ate in the main room. We decided that since they had it on the menu, we would each get a buffalo burger to try it. It’s not bad, and the say it has less fat than chicken or turkey. Everything was pretty good and it was a cool, unique place to eat.

It ended up being a pretty full day, so we went back to the hotel and crashed. Next up is Royal Gorge, and hour or so south of Colorado Springs, and then on to our next spot, The Black Canyon.