The day we went ot the top of Colorado

Right after we got back from UT we decided to take a little family drive up to the top of Pikes Peak. It had been rainy for so long and finally there was a mostly clear morning.  There is a road that goes to the top, it's 19 miles of switch backs.  It goes above the tree line, from 8,000ft to 14,000ft.  It's a road you pay per person to drive, it cost our family $34 for this little drive. At the gate they asked us if we knew how to use the low and high gears in our car.  I thought that was a little strange, until we started the drive up and then back down again. There are a lot of cars that overheat on the way up (also why there is a sign at the bottom saying not to use air conditioners) and then brakes overheat on the way down. Lucky for us our van did really well, Trent is a pro at the high and low function of the van. 

A little ways up there is a lake and a visitors center.  We stopped for a few minutes and a man was there with his donkey.  They were all dressed up a miners. 

It was beautiful at the top! It was freezing, probably 50 degrees at the top, down in the valley it was closer to 90.  We were not prepared for the cold.  The kids loved climbing over the rocks.  There is a little gift shop at the top that sells these little doughnuts, they were do good!  I'd drive back up there just for that :)  We spotted a few mountain goats on the drive.  They were really hard to spot, so the kids never could see them, but I did and then pointed them out to Trent. There was still a bit of snow up there too. You could see for miles out across the planes from the top--I believe we were told you can see 5 different states.  We went on a mostly clear day so we could see really really far.  It was amazing!  We didn't spent too much time at the top, because we were freezing and there were so many people up there.  There is a cog railroad that takes people to the top, it had just let out when we got there.  It would have been fun to ride that, but the almost $40 per person was a bit out of our budget. 

There was a mandatory brake check station about half way down, to make sure your breaks didn't over heat.  The maximum they want to see is around 300 degrees, ours was at 180, so we were good.  However there were many stopped there that weren't.  Lots of cars with the hood up trying to get them to cool off (the were headed up the mountain) and there was a strong scent of burning rubber, from over heated breaks. We decided to get out for a few minutes anyway and let the kids play in the mining water.  They had so much fun digging around in the watery sand. 

 It was the perfect Saturday morning activity!  One I hope we'll get to do again before we move.