Trip 3 Day 21 -- Pikes Peak or Bust

In 1885, Zalmon Simmons rode a burro up to the top of Pikes Peak.  He liked the view, but not the all-day burro ride.  Being an inventor (he is the same guy who invented the Simmons BeautyRest mattress and boxsprings combination) he thought a cog railway might be a more comfortable ride for tourists interested in seeing the magnificent view from the top.

So in 1889, he started the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.  This narrow-gauge railroad starts in Manitou Springs (outside Colorado Springs) and runs to the summit of Pikes Peak.  Since the railroad AVERAGES a vertical grade of 16% (reaching 25% in some areas), a standard railroad locomotive would have insufficient traction, even with all wheels driving, to pull itself up the grade, let alone passenger cars.  Hence, the rail line uses a cog and gear system... the track has teeth in the track, and the train has a gear which fits in the teeth and is turned by the engine to pull itself up.

Today, we rode the cog train to the top of Pikes Peak.  Elevation at the top is over 14,115 feet above sea level.  But this is still not Colorado's highest mountain.  Indeed, Pikes Peak is the 31st highest mountain in Colorado... 30 other mountain peaks are higher in the state.

In 1893, Katherine Bates, a college professor, was so moved by the view from the Inspiration Point, halfway up the mountain, that she wrote "America, the Beautiful".

The ride starts out going up a beautiful gorge with a waterfall higher than Niagara Falls.  The tour guide is quick to point out that she didn't say the falls was "larger" or "bigger" than Niagara, but "higher".  The falls here is at 8000' ASL where Niagara is about 510' ASL, thus these falls are "higher" than Niagara Falls.

From the forest in the gorge, the line rises above the treeline as 11,000 feet, and continues up the alpine tundra.

You will notice that the car is inclined... look out the windows below and you will see the ground.

Here is a photo of our tourguide, Erin.  Notice that she is standing vertically, whereas the car is inclined 25%.  While I turned the photo, she really is standing perfectly vertically.  It was funny.

Allen snapped a picture of me, again standing perfectly vertically.  The car is inclined, and the camera is inclined parallel to the railcar.

The view from the top is breathtaking.  I've been here before, but both times, the summit was enshrouded in fog, being inside a cloud, so I had no idea what the view from the top was like. 

Here is a view of the city of Colorado Springs, way way down.  The tour guide said, "see the horizon over there?  That's Kansas."   You can see five states from this point:  Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

The air is noticeable thinner up here.  If you walk very fast, even for a short distance, like 50 feet, you begin to feel giddy.  We enjoyed some of the world-famous Pike's Peak donuts at the cafe on top.  The tourguide told us we had 30 minutes at the top.  She said, "if you aren't on this train at 4:30 p.m. sharp, when the whistle blows for departure, then something happens to your body.  You suddenly become what we call... a hiker."  It is 17 miles if you hike down (or up) the mountain.