Day 2 - Pikes Peak to Montrose

For our second day in Colorado, we planned to visit Pikes Peak and then drive to Montrose.  Yesterday evening, after some research, Frank recommended we take the Cog Railway up to the Summit (elevation 14,115 feet).  (The roads were open if we wanted to drive, but we decided it would be a much more enjoyable trip for someone else to drive/navigate and we could take in the sites.)

View from our hotel room in Colorado Springs

Just a short drive from Colorado Springs

Cog Railway Depot

The following pictures are scenes along the way up to the Summit:

"I've been working on the railroad...."

More of the crew that check the tracks daily and make any needed repairs.

Paved road leading to the Summit.  

(What you don't see is the hairpin turn off the left edge of the picture.)

Original Summit House

In the early 70's, my family lived in Denver and we took a trip to Pikes Peak.

Daniel, Leann and Mama

Today (5/2/12)

(It was 27 degrees on the thermometer.  Who knows what it was with the wind chill!)

"America the Beautiful"

Cog Railway Train circa early 1970's

The Cog Railway train today.

World Famous donuts, made daily at the Summit (14,000+ feet).

(Incidentally, ran into some other Noles at the Summit!)

For the return trip, we sat on the opposite side of the train, facing the other direction in order to get a different view.  The following are scenes from that trip.

After the train trip, we decided to have lunch in this quaint park in Manitou Springs.

Our destination for the evening was Montrose, CO.  (No particular reason or anything to see.  It was about 5 hours from Pikes Peak and about 3 hours to Moab, UT.)  Here are some pictures from that part of the day.

Yep, a buffalo!

Normally, I wouldn't take a picture of road construction, but we were both impressed with the system they have for reducing traffic to one lane and stopping cars on one end to let the others pass. Usually, we see someone standing with a sign that says STOP-SLOW and they flip it depending on what they want you to do.  This way, the lights are visible from quite far away and reduces the manpower involved.  Pretty ingenious!

Yes, this could have been us.  (But we are both glad it's not!)

We found a fun restaurant in Montrose called Camp Robber .

We were both in the mood for something lighter and decided on salads - sirloin salad for Frank and chicken salad in avocado for me. Both were very tasty!

Click to enlarge

"We Buy Antlers"

This was a first!  At home we see "We Buy Gold" stores all over the place.  Guess when you're in the land of the gold rushes and the gold has run out, they find other things of value.

That's all for now.  Day 3 will consist of a 3 hour drive to Moab, UT with a visit at Arches National Park.