Wow, accidentally just erased everything I typed for Day 12, how irritating. Well, here we go again!
Day 12:
On the itinerary for today are Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods. Jennifer was on driving duty for the ascent phase of our peak visit. The drive was pretty cool, and every bit of fun we expected it to be. On the way up, the sky started to cloud up and frozen rain began to pelt the Ghost. Of course, that just got me started talking about slick and icy roads and how I hoped we didn't slip off the edge
Unfortunately, my humor went unappreciated. Tough crowd. We made good time to the top and by the time we got there, the wind had picked up a bit and the frozen precip was a bit more steady. We looked around the gift shop and purchased the requisite magnets for the refrigerator and then sat down to share amongst ourselves two of the famous Pikes Peak donuts. The super special recipe only works at that altitude. All I can say is they were sweet and edible, not a whole lot more, haha. It was fun watching some of the poor suckers running around outside in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.
Making the ascent:
The weather starting to move in:
The long and winding road:
Frozen stuff:
It's amazing how an extra 8,000 feet of altitude can change the weather. Down in Colo Spgs, it was sunny and in the low 80's. On the peak, it was in the low 40's and sleeting.
The storms at altitude:
Here comes the cog railway:
Here's the crew doing the tourist bit:
The Ghost doing the tourist bit:
What a view!
On the way down:
Check out the skid marks and the guard rail damage. Looks like someone was having a fun day
After making our way down and passing the mandatory break check (breaks had to be less than 300 degrees - the Odyssey in front of us failed), we passed by the 'North Pole' tourist trap and made our way to the Garden of the Gods. Standing next to those huge rock formations makes ya feel kinda small in comparison:
After impending rain (and some rather loud thunder) chased us from the Garden, we decided to head back to the hotel. On the way back, Jennifer recalled seeing a sign for "Seven Falls" and wondered what it was. We had time, so we decided to program the NAV (it was actually in there, again the NAV has impressed) and find out. What we found was pretty cool. It was a seven tiered waterfall at the end of a beautiful box canyon.
This picture can't begin to do it justice:
Here are the steps we climbed to get to the top:
Yep, 224 of those buggers. And the thing was, Christopher (3 years old) wanted to go to the top of the waterfall. We were dreading having to carry him up or down (or both!!). To our surprise, the little-man trudged his way up all by himself, and down all by himself, not needing, or even wanting, to be carried any of the way. That little guy is awesome, and quite the trooper.
The falls ended up being a fantastic surprise and awesome side trip. They also were the perfect end to the days travels.
Two fuel-ups to report for today with 23.51mpg and 16.83mpg (gotta love the Pikes Peak climb!!) and a total of 12942.4 miles on the odometer.