Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Pikes Peak
So picture this. I plug my iPod into my car stereo, set to shuffle my jazz playlist. I start up the Pikes Peak Highway ... a 19-mile road that takes you from about 6500 feel elevation to 14,100 feet. What a lovely drive!The aspen are mostly golden at that height. They're simply beautiful ... and you can absolutely see why they call them "quaking aspen". The little round leaves shake in the breeze. The other cool thing about the aspen is that when they are golden, they stand out brilliantly against the evergreen color of the pine surrounding them. It makes for a gorgeous hillside around every bend.
And bends and more bends there were. The Pikes Peak Highway is nineteen miles of twisting and turning. Some of it is paved, and some of it is dirt. But that's mountain driving for you! Take a look at a diagram of the road.
The peak is above the timberline (about 12,000 feet), and for the last 2,000 feet of the drive, it's a barren wasteland ... but it still looks down on all of that beauty that is Colorado. The view from the top is absolutely amazing! You can see all of Colorado Springs looking to the east, and you can see far into the Rockies when you look to the west.
A few years ago, I made that drive, and couldn't stand the lack of oxygen at the top. But this time, after having been at about 7,000+ for 3 weeks, I was mostly fine. (Although I did get dizzy twice ... once after standing up from looking at something on a bottom shelf, and the second time after blowing my nose.) The other thing about the top is that it is cold and windy. There is a little tiny bit of snow at this time of year. And the wind is almost unbearable. But the views make it all worth it!
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