October 4-5, 2012

YESTERDAY, WE ARRIVED IN COLORADO SPRINGS, home of the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Olympic Training Facility.  However, we didn't come here to see either of those places. We came to Colorado Springs because of nearby Pike's Peak. Although we have been in high altitudes for the last month, the places where we have been would be considered mere foothills in Colorado. With 54 peaks higher than 14,000 feet, Colorado leads the United States in "fourteeners." Pikes Peak is 14,100 feet in altitude, which places it 34th on the list of mountains over 14,000 feet high in the state. Despite its lowly ranking among Colorado's fourteeners, it is the most visited mountain in the United States.

Today, as planned, we drove to the base of the mountain. There are three methods travelers use to ascend Pike's Peak. Two of those methods we rejected out of hand. We had no intention of hiking up over 14,000 feet, and the 19 mile drive up the mountain with nearly 80 hair-pin switchbacks was not appealing. As a result, we chose the third method of reaching the top of the mountain: taking the old cog wheel train. We had never been on a cog wheel train before. In fact, I had no idea what "cog wheel" meant. In addition to the wheels all trains possess, a cog wheel train has a track running beneath the train which has cogs designed to mesh with cogs in the middle of the track. Because of the cogs, such a train is able to go up extremely steep inclines, even steeper than our driveway at home.

Boarding the train in late morning, we took the hour and 15 minute trip to the top. At one point, the train chugged up a 25 degree incline for a full mile. During our ride, we saw waterfalls, massive granite boulders and deep valleys. One spot, Wind Point, is so named because the winds can whip through this tree-less area at up to 160 miles an hour.

After reaching the top, we nearly froze when we got off of the train. On a clear day, you can see three hundred miles from the top of the mountain; but this was not a clear day. When we looked down, we saw only clouds; they looked more like snow banks than clouds. Every once in a while, there would be a slight break in the clouds and we could see "lesser" mountains below. It was so cold and windy that we spent only a short time peering down the mountain.

About 45 minutes was allotted at the top, and the conductor warned everyone at least three times that the train would head down the mountain at exactly 12:40 pm. Because of an experience we had years ago in Germany, we were on the train before 12:40 pm. When we were In Germany, we decided to take the kids to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest, located above Berchtesgaden. The only way up the mountain to Eagle's Nest was by bus, and we learned that day that Germans are hyper-punctual. We missed the bus by minutes, and decided to walk the five miles to the bottom. To make sure that our daughters did not get bored, I had them chant: "One two three four; we won the Second World War." It was a good time, but we were sore for a week.

Our day was not over when we reached the bottom of Pike's Peak. Carole had discovered that there were Anasazi ruins nearby, and we drove to the site of those ruins. It certainly beat Mesa Verdi. Instead of a tortuous drive up a mountain and a long drive from the top to reach the ruins, we were able to simply pull off the highway a quarter of a mile and drive right up to the Anasazi ruins. I quickly concluded that all Anasazi houses must look pretty much the same. The houses we saw looked exactly like ones I had seen in movies and books. I did a quick ten minute review of the old houses, and headed to the warmth of the little museum near the houses. As usual, Carole studied the site much more thoroughly than I did.