Pikes Peak is known as “America’s Mountain.” It’s not necessarily the tallest mountain the area, however it is one of the most advertised. While going to the top it was recommended that you should be “friendly” to your car by not stopping on the way up. It’s easier to stop and put less stress on the car’s engine going down. After seeing excellent views and driving along roads without guardrails, we made it to the top.
There is a viewing platform with coin operated binoculars. While I was on the viewing platform the train carrying tourists arrived. The tourists immediately went into the gift shop and restaurant at the top.
After about 15 minutes at the top, I noticed I began to feel lightheaded, and sleepy. It was the altitude that was making me feel this way. I figured the longer I stayed the more lightheaded I got. After getting souvenirs we took some more photos and started our decent down. I laid down in the backseat as I was feeling really tired. About midway down, we stopped at a ranger check station. As a courtesy to visitors rangers check the heat of the brakes using infrared gun. The ranger told us our brake temperature was good and that we were doing everything right…that is keeping our car in low gear and letting the engine keep the car going slowly rather than riding our brakes.
Next was onto Drifters hamburgers. The owner of the restaurant used to own a In-And-Out franchise and decided to attempt the same concept in Colorado Springs. Since In-And-Our only builds franchises near a day’s driving distance of their cattle ranches, Colorado is too far east to have an In-And-Out. The burger was good. I recommend it.
Victor, Colorado was kind of a spur of the moment type trip. I did a quick search on my smart phone for ghost towns and found National Geographic had an article about it “Ghost town” is a misnomer as the town is occupied. It’s heyday was around the turn of the century when mining was big. The town is staging a comeback with a renovation of a historic hotel and other tourist attractions. I took several photos and visited the lobby of the Victor museum.
We then drove a few miles up the road to Cripple Creek. We found that there was a biker event being held in downtown with very few free parking spaces. We wouldn’t have been able to get downtown without a lot of walking. We made a few photos from the car and moved on.
We then visited the Garden of the Gods trading post – a huge gift shop, restaurant, and art gallery. Pretty much any souvenir of Colorado is at this location.
Garden of the Gods is a free park near Colorado Springs. Within the park are some huge…almost alien looking…rock formations. These tan rocks are shaped like elephant ears. We stopped and took some photos while driving through the park.
We were really looking forward to relaxing in the hotel pool and Jacuzzi, however some teenagers had taken over the pool area and we would have been fighting for space. So it was on to our hotel room for a good night’s sleep before driving back to Kansas in the morning.