We got an early start this morning and had a sunny, blue sky drive up the Pikes Peak road. What a drive with “W” turns at the top where there were no trees and NO guard rails! (See photo.) We took LOTS of pictures all the way up. Remember, this is our first day of seeing Colorado “rocks”. We reached the top about 10:40 a.m., a 19-mile climb, 14,110 ft above sea level (2-1/2 miles high), 43 deg F, with 53.6% available oxygen! No wonder we felt dizzy and light headed. We took more pictures at the top, waiting for the Cog railway to leave at 11:20 and the cafeteria to clear out before we got lunch. We were glad we did our picture taking before lunch because after we had sleet and pea-sized hail! This continued until we got down to mile 13 where there was a Brake Check Booth. Our brakes registered 267 deg F; if you register close to 300 degrees F, you have to pull off to cool your brakes for 20 to 30 minutes. We stopped any way and went into the gift shop. The sky opened with thunder and lightning and hail (see Photo). The ground turned white and then it rained so hard that it washed it all away.
When we got back to the campground, the sun was shining, so we decided to drive thru the Garden of the Gods and take pictures of the red rocks as the sun was going down. We spent a short time in the Trading Post where Chuck got a new leather black hat with a wide brim to keep the sun off his face and neck. It is very dry here, but the sun is intense!
For the grandkids: In 1892, Katharine Lee Bates, a teacher from Massachusetts, wrote the words to what later became the song "America the Beautiful". Where was she and what inspired her to write these words?
Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, CO; the view was so magnificent that she wrote about what she saw.
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