Well, this has almost been our motto. When we made our first trip to the area in 2001, I told dh we'd get the wonderful opportunity to drive to the top of Pikes Peak, a mere 14, 110' high! The highest peaks in Colorado are dubbed the 14ers. Pikes Peak is one of them, towering over Colorado Springs. Surprisingly, as we drove to the top, we had to stop at Crystal Reservoir and could go no further so the car race could proceed! Yes, a car race, as in the Indy 500 but this is the Pikes Peak Challenge or something. Those crazy drivers come to the mountain yearly to speed their way to the top to capture the prize. Hmmmm, I thought the prize was making it to the top at a slow speed, yet safely, and enjoying the view! This goes on for a week. Sadly, later in the week, a man was killed, driving off the side of the road (there are no guardrails.)

This drive is not for the faint of heart. In fact, most take the cograil to the top. The drive starts easily enough, making many twists and turns with lots of great scenery. Near the top it gets really scary and the road seems to go straight into the air. I am digging my fingers into the seat. That first time, the kids were ages 5 and 8 and loving the view d-o-w-n. There were no guardrails. Did I mention that already? DH was gripping the steering wheel and you could see the whites of his knuckles while he sang under his breath, "Have Faith in Jesus" while the children would call out, "It’s a l-o-n-g way down there Daddy! But you’re not scared, are you?" Finally we made it to the top and I wanted to keep my family in the center of the mountain so that no one would fall off. Because we were over 14,000’, we were way past treeline and on the tundra. All we could see around us was sky. We carefully edged our way to the side and what a view! Way down below looked like a patchwork quilt of tans and greens. Our little family started singing, "America, the Beautiful." The other tourists must have thought we were nuts. The children had just learned in school how Katherine Bates had written those verses after being on top of this mountain. It was bitterly cold at the top so we took some pictures and ran into the gift shop where there were great shirts, caps, mugs and bumper stickers with sayings like "Real Men Don’t Need Guardrails." Later down below in Manitou Springs, we found a t-shirt factory where we designed our own t-shirts. Mine says "I made it to the top…and back down again." Whenever I wear that, I get a lot of comments!

When we came back in 2006, we had just done Trail Ridge Road in RMNP. We drove to the top and that was easy that time! And we found out it had grown since our previous trip! The mountain had recently been measured again and now it is 5’ taller! I think it helped that there was little traffic, so that we owned the road for the most part. That means we could drive down the center of the road most times. Did I mention, there are no guardrails? Here are some great pictures from that drive…

Crystal Lake Reservoir with Pikes Peak in the background...

Glen Cove...the last rest stop before the climb that looks like it's straight up in the air!  This is the point of no return!  Looking down from where we came...

The top...

Glacial Lakes...

More great views...

We finally headed down.  This can be real scary, because your car seems it will have to point straight down, to get down.  There were lots of marmots laying on the side of the road on the way up.  We made friends with this one...

As we continued our descent, the kids started yelling!  They had finally seen the elusive big horn sheep!  We all took pictures, but only dh's camera had a good enough zoom to prove they were indead bighorn sheep...rams in fact!

This year, we had planned on driving to the top. It’s a piece of cake now! However, before the trip our brakes had been declared being only 20%. We had already done RMNP and I-70. Would they hold for Pikes Peak? Since we didn’t want to really bust the van, we opted for Seven Falls…and almost saw a bear! In hindsight, I wish I had asked that lady to e-mail her photo of the bear to me!