Pike's Peak

Before the girls left to spend the second half of the summer in KS, we took them up to Pike's Peak for a wonderful afternoon. It was an awe-inspiring experience. First of all, the drive up is magnificent. You can distinctly tell when you get above timberline and there was still snow up there, even in June. In fact, to this day there is still a small amount of snow up there. Not as much as when we arrived in CO and not as much as when we took our trip up there, but you can still see snow up on the top even from our house.

Anyway, we all loved being up there. The view is astounding. It's very difficult to breathe, due to the high elevation. They sell shirts and hats that say, "got oxygen?" Jay wants to climb to the top one day and I'd love to do it with him, but not until our bodies adjust to the altitude. I am confident I would not make it all the way up at this point. You can take a train up from Manitou Springs, which I would like to do one day, but for this trip we drove the Titan.

We had lunch at a "restaurant" on the way down and it was just about the worst food we'd ever eaten, so I suggest bringing a picnic lunch and eating outside at the picnic tables. The view made up for the bad food though. We sat outside among the trees and watched little critters running about, it was so serene. We learned that America the Beautiful was inspired by the view from the summit and it came as no surprise.

We are seeing so many amazing sights here! Once again, another great outing for company :)