Today we stayed in the Colorado Springs area. The three major events are 1) hiking Barr trail, 2) driving Pikes Peak, and 3) dinner with Katie and Mike. There are a bunch of pictures on Flickr, mostly from Barr trail.
Barr Trail goes up Pikes Peak, from Manitou Springs. It is 13 miles, I think, to the top. We didn’t do that. We did the first 2-3 miles, it was all we had time for. It’s a really nice hike – not too strenuous, despite what the reviews say –nice switchbacks all the way on the part we did, never too steep. Dogs are okay – it’s a national park area. There’s a train from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak too! Might take that someday.
The Barr Trail provides many very scenic views. The drawback – a minor one – is that it is very popular. The parking lot is small, and we were very fortunate to get rock star parking right off the bat! Many people run the trail, some both up and down, most just down. That’s a bit annoying – sorta like Piestawa Peak in Phoenix. But it’s well maintained, a relatively easy hike – keeping in mind that we really took it easy.
The drive up Pikes Peak is very interesting. First, it costs $10 per person – that was a surprise! But the road is pretty good, mostly paved. It takes about an hour up and another hour down. Spend as much time at the top as you want. The views are spectacular! There will probably be weather. We had thunder, lightning and snow, not to mention wind. It is 14,110 feet – that’s a bunch! Needless to say there are some exciting spots on the drive up. Best to have no fear of heights for this one!
To digress just a bit – my mother once tried to ride in a car to the top of Pikes Peak – I don’t remember what year – could have been in the 1980’s. For whatever reason, she wasn’t able to go to the top. Perhaps the altitude change, perhaps the opportunity for vertigo, I’ll never know. She was much on my mind as we went to the top. This one was for you, Mom!
After a full day of hiking and driving, we had a very nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse with Katie and Mike. I wish we could have had more time together. They are fun and very interesting. The Outback meal was good – I’m sure our waiter was really an engineer.
Tomorrow we are headed for Steamboat Springs, and Rocky Mountain National Park. See you there!
1 comment:
Howdy. I pinged my Evergreen nephew about Rocky Mtn Natnl Park. We did a quick EASY hike there last year with his 4yr old daughter. It was a really pretty trail. If you only have a short time to hike, it's a nice choice. Here's what he said:
That’s cool your friends are road tripping. I believe the short trail we did last year was Alberta Falls which is near the glacier gorge/bear lake parking areas. Also from that area, if your buddies have the time, is a nice 9 mile round tripper that takes you past 3 lakes, the best being Sky Pond. The trail is called Loch Vale, so let them know they should check it out if they have time. Another great hike we like to do is Herman Gulch. The trailhead is right off I-70 (exit 218) and is about halfway between Evergreen and the Eisenhower Tunnel. It also ends in a really nice lake in a high alpine setting. There might be some significant snow on all of these hikes, so they might want to call the RMNP ranger station to check conditions. We ran into snow at 10k feet outside of Aspen last weekend – check out the pics at dangrube.com.
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