The view from the top of a 14er has an entirely different meaning when you hike up!
Pikes Peak.
The inspiration for the poem that eventually became “America the Beautiful.” (Did you know that?)
This mountain stares at us almost daily. Why not hike up to the top?
This 14,110′ mountain towers over the city of Colorado Springs and greets us every day on our drives to work. We have a decent view of the mountain from our back deck and from the 2nd floor of our house.
A view of Pikes Peak (on the far right) from the 2nd floor of our house.
Colorado has over 50 “14ers“, which is the affectionate nickname for the state’s 14,000’+ mountains. Pikes Peak is the 30th tallest of the Colorado Fourteeners, but has the second highest “prominence” in the state, with only Mount Elbert having a higher prominence. In other words, climbing Pikes Peak takes a bit more vertical effort than most of the others.
For Dave’s 40th birthday, he invited a group of friends to join us on a hike up the 13-mile Barr Trail from Manitou Springs to the peak. This isn’t a casual walk — while the first 9 miles or so are straightforward, once you go above about 11,000′ the trees disappear and you’re exposed to the elements — wide open.
We made it to the top at about 1:30pm on Dave’s 40th birthday. It was an unforgettable experience. Read on about our hike.
Hermit’s Rest is on the far western end of the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.
We had made it clear to the boys that we would be hiking at least part of our two days at the Grand Canyon. I saw a list of family-friendly activities in the park summer guide. We chose the Junior Ranger Family Adventure Program, in which families can descend down into the canyon via the challenging Hermit’s Trail. Dave and I wanted to get some exercise, and we were confident our kids could handle it.
Getting to Hermit’s Rest, where the program began, was a task in itself. We drove to the Grand Canyon Village part of the park, where we then caught a bus that took us on the 45 minute drive to the western end of the park. It was a gorgeous drive with several views of the canyon to enjoy.
Jacob’s smile in this picture make this slippery hike worth it!
On the second day of our trip to Estes Park, we took a hike around Bear Lake. We weren’t sure what we would encounter, since there was quite a bit of snow. It turned out the trail was very snowy, but was packed down enough that we could walk on it okay. We just had to be very very careful!
These signs all over the entrance were rather daunting….
Even though it’s mid-November, we have had a nice spell of pleasant weather here, and I’ve been enjoying some hikes in the area. Over Veteran’s Day weekend I did two nice hikes along with another trip up the Manitou Incline. One of the hikes was the most challenging I’ve experienced in over 15 years, back … Read more
I wish I had gotten a picture when I was further away, and this isn’t even the peak. The peak is just to the right of this, and we were probably at about 12,900′ here so you aren’t looking all that high up.
Mount Evans is one of Colorado’s 50+ Fourteeners and is one of the ones nearest to Denver. Mount Bierstadt is also nearby, and we could easily see it as we were ascending the mountain.
Last weekend my old college roommate Megan came into town from New England for my birthday. I invited our friend Adam down from Denver to spend some time with us. I had originally planned to drive Megan up Pike’s Peak via the auto road, but Adam had talked us into Mount Evans. He said the drive is much more scenic, and is free of charge. The Pike’s Peak road is a toll road.
While we were in Colorado in May to buy our house, we took some spare time to visit the Garden of the Gods park, which is along the western edge of Colorado Springs.
The Garden of the Gods park is a gift to the City of Colorado Springs. In 1879, Charles Elliot Perkins, the president of the Chicago, Quincy and Burlington Railroad, purchased the land that included the Garden of the Gods. He intended for the land to one day be used for a summer estate, but that plan never came to fruition. After his death, Perkins’ children conveyed the land, 480 acres worth, to the City of Colorado Springs. A plaque commemorating this is affixed to one of the rocks.
Why I FAILED to post yesterday, and thus FAILED at the NaBloPoMo contest for this year. 1.) I was playing Glitch quite a bit on Sunday. I was trying to earn enough money for a super-big new house and that took about 3 hours of my day. 2.) I was busy with Cub Scouts. Timmy’s … Read more
Enjoy some pictures I took of the spectacular fall colors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park last week. I was in the area training for my AF Reserve job. These are too pretty not to share with the world! You’ll notice that I’m in my winter coat (it was in the low 50s) for some … Read more
This past weekend our family headed to the Spanish Trail Scout Reservation near Defuniak Springs and had a weekend campout. The scout council here calls it “Cub Scout Family Camp” and it’s a great weekend. Three weekends in October were made available expressly for Cub Scout-friendly activities. Any Cub Scout families could register for any … Read more
