YIKES PEAK

In the words of John Muir, "The mountains are calling and I must go." That's what Jim said this morning at breakfast when deciding what to do today. We're camped only a few miles from the base of Pikes Peak, so why not drive up to the top and see what's what!

It was a 20 mile drive up the mountain to the summit with many, many switchbacks and no guard rails.  The ranger warned us to make sure we had at least a half of a tank of gas when we started up the mountain, and to downshift into 1st gear and avoid using the brakes on the way down.

It was so steep!  It was so scary! So many hairpin turns.  I tried to get a picture to show the turns, and maybe if you look closely you can see the roads as they wind back and forth  beneath us. One wrong turn and we would have been toast.

At last we reached the summit at 14,115 feet and it started snowing. That's what those white spots are on the picture of the summit sign! SNOW! The temperature went from 77 degrees down in town to 45 degrees at the top of the mountain.



Then it was time to turn around and come back down.  Just as scary! Just as many hair pin turns only now Jim wasn't supposed to use the brakes. At about half way down the ranger stopped each car for a mandatory brake check.  He checked our brakes with an infrared thermometer and gave us the go ahead.  That Jim, thank goodness he's a great driver!