PIKE'S PEAK ~ August 31, 2008

We went to Colorado over Labor Day weekend to visit some friends who live in Florissant near Colorado Springs. While there, we looked at Focus on the Family’s headquarters, saw the historic mining town of Cripple Creek, stood on the Continental Divide, and drove up Pike’s Peak. Due to its prominent height and location at the eastern edge of the Rockies where the mountains jut up from the flat prairie, Pike’s Peak was a symbol to pioneers and gold seekers heading west. "Pike’s Peak or Bust" became their motto, just as it became ours (scrawled in the dust on the back of our Ford Expedition).

To get there, first we had to wait in a long line of about 20 vehicles at the toll gate (it costs $35 per car). Then we started out on a nice winding road through the forest. Overall the road would climb 7,000 feet in 20 miles and take us through four different life zones - Foothills, Montane, Sub-Alpine, and Alpine Tundra.

Once we got above the tree line at 12,000 feet it became a continuous series of steep switchbacks, sharp hairpin turns, and dizzying drop-offs with an appalling lack of guardrails! That means 25 minutes of sheer terror for someone (like me) who’s afraid of heights!

The road took us an hour to drive one way. Most of it is paved but part of it is gravel. The posted speed is generally 20 mph but only 10 mph at certain places. You have to put your car in low gear and be careful not to ride your brakes or they will get too hot and fail. It almost looks like a highway to heaven... and let me tell you, I for one was doing plenty of praying!

It's amazing how they were able to build a road going all the way up a 14,110-foot peak. The Pikes Peak Highway really is a HIGH way. It was constructed as a toll road for tourists in 1888 and advertised as "the highest road in the world." (Today the highest road in the world is in the Indian Himalayas.) In those days, horse-drawn carriages carried passengers halfway and mule-drawn wagons transported them the rest of the way.

A cog railway was built in 1889, which made the journey easier for gentlemen in jackets and ladies in ruffled skirts going on Sunday afternoon excursions. In 1915, the original roadbed was improved for automobile travel. Nowadays the parking lot is filled with cars, many with out-of-state license plates, which shows that Pike's Peak really is "America's Mountain" and still a popular destination. In addition to a high altitude research station, you will also find a donut shop, gift store, and oxygen bar on top!

The air on the mountaintop contains about 50% less oxygen than at sea level. The two climbers in our family were fine the whole time. The rest of us had mild queasiness, breathlessness, and occasional heart pounding, but no headaches. We spent about an hour at that elevation.

The north side of the summit provides a dramatic view of a nearly vertical 1200-ft. deep ravine known as the Bottomless Pit. BE CAREFUL! HOLD ONTO YOUR CHILDREN! Sadly, it's been the site of a few suicides.

The peak temperature seldom exceeds 40F even in summer and snow is a possibility year-round. Standing in the cold thin air on the windswept summit, the view literally is breathtaking. You’ve probably heard that Katherine Lee Bates was inspired to write “America the Beautiful” based on her experience traveling to Pike’s Peak in 1893 and it’s true, we could see clearly all the way from the fruited Great Plains to the majestic Rocky Mountains (although they looked blue rather than purple), with spacious skies all around.

Click on the above image to enlarge it so you can read the commemorative plaque, then click your back button to return to this page.

On our trip up the mountain, my 8-year-old at one point began sobbing and blurted out, "I wanted to play a game when we got home, but now I probably won't even live to see tomorrow." Poor little guy! As we started back down he actually fell asleep, which I think was his body's way of handling the stress. As soon as we had safely reached the bottom he woke right up!

"I went up Pike's Peak and lived to tell about it!"

The eloquent and patriotic words of "America the Beautiful" have captivated the heart and soul of an entire nation.

Additional Resources

http://www.pikespeakcolorado.com - Pike’s Peak website.

http://www.pikes-peak.com/Page/122.aspx - Pike’s Peak Information.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4191/is_20021013/ai_n10012355 - Pike's peak Timeline.

http://www.visitpikespeak.com/history.htm - Pike’s Peak history.

http://www2.gazette.com/pikespeak/index.php - Pike's Peak Bicentennial.

http://www.cograilway.com/ - Pike’s Peak Cog Railway.

“Extending as far as the eye can reach, lie the great level plains, stretched out in all their verdure and beauty, while the winding of the grand Arkansas is visible for many miles. Then the rugged rocks all around, and the almost endless succession of mountains and rocks below, the broad blue sky over our heads and seemingly so very near.” ~Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pike's Peak, 8/12/1858

BILL WILLIAMS MOUNTAIN ~ June 10, 2007

You can either hike or drive to the top of Bill Williams Mountain (9,256 ft.), where there is a lookout tower that you can climb (at your own risk) for an even higher view. The lookout tower is manned, so if you’re brave enough to go up there, the ranger may let you in and show you around. It’s cramped quarters, though, with barely room enough for four visitors at a time. It was super windy when we were there, especially on the open stairway up to the tower. I’m scared of heights so I stayed down by the car but the guys all went up and got to go inside the tower. In addition to the lookout tower, there are a couple of small buildings and numerous communications equipment at the summit.

We drove up the mountain because the hike takes six hours and seemed like it would be a little difficult for the younger kids and me. To drive there, simply take Forest Road 173 (Perkinsville Road) south from 4th Street in downtown Williams and after about five miles, turn west onto FR111. The road is well-graded and four-wheel drive is probably not needed, but it’s steep with many hairpin turns as it winds its way up to the top. I wasn’t as scared as I thought I’d be because the road was pretty wide and lined with trees, which meant that at least we weren’t on the edge of sheer drop-offs or anything, even though we were really high up there and the views were breathtaking. It’s supposed to be a popular drive in the fall for seeing autumn colors.

On our way up, we passed a couple who were riding bikes to the top. We passed them again on the way down, but they were almost there by then. It was certainly a tough ride up, but must have been quite exciting going back down!

Also as we were going around one of the curves, I spotted a dog tied to a tree just off the side of the road. We stopped to check on him and he didn’t look hungry or thirsty or anxious, so hopefully everything was okay. Perhaps his owner was just letting him rest there in the shade of the tree while he went off on a hike or something. There are some nice campsites along the first part of the road under the pine trees on the edge of the meadows. We’ll have to keep that in mind for next time.

Bill Williams Mountain, the town of Williams, and the Bill Williams River in western Arizona were all named after William Sherley Williams, a.k.a. Bill Williams. He was a mountain man, hunter, scout and guide who traveled through the Mogollon and Little Colorado River region of Arizona in 1837, living off the land and trapping beaver. Then he headed west across the Colorado Plateau to the Colorado River, thus completing his only known visit to what is now Arizona. Williams was killed by Ute Indians while transporting baggage for the Fremont expedition in 1849.

While Bill Williams Mountain is a lone peak, it is one of a series of lava domes also consisting of Sitgreaves Mountain and Kendrick Peak, which rise along a fault line stretching west from Humphrey’s Peak.

MT. TAYLOR, NM ~ May 26-27, 2007

“We just have to go back there!” That quote from my 7-year-old son echoes what we all thought about our trip up Mount Taylor. Although white settlers christened it Mount Taylor after General Zachary Taylor, this mountain had long been an area of special religious and cultural significance to several local American Indian communities. It turned out to be a magical place to us as well.

After eating at Chili Kicks on Route 66, we went to find a place to camp for the night. To get to Mount Taylor from Grants, go north on First Street until you reach Lobo Canyon Road. You will go past a Smith’s supermarket, the Mount Taylor Ranger District office, a nice subdivision, and then a state prison. From there it’s a gently curving road up into the mountains. The paved portion reminded me of the road that Lightning McQueen and Sally drove on in Cars, but without the waterfall. After about 13 miles, the pavement ends and from there it is a good dirt-and-gravel road until you get near the top and then the road begins to deteriorate.

Though not as impressive as Humphrey’s Peak in Arizona when seen from a distance, Mount Taylor is considered to be one of New Mexico's most beautiful peaks and its location is not all that remote, so we were surprised at how little-used the area appeared to be. We were there on Memorial Day weekend but only saw signs of one other group of campers.

The 11,301-foot mountain is the cinder cone of an extinct stratovolcano, surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes. It is part of the same volcanic system as the lava fields at nearby El Malpais. When Mount Taylor erupted, a large chunk of the summit was blown off, but it’s unclear as to how high the mountain was before the eruption.

As we neared the top of Mount Taylor, the road got so bad and washed out that we couldn’t go any further. There was standing water, too, so it must have either rained recently or it’s just a wetter area than we’re used to Arizona. The top of the mountain is covered with radio towers so I’m surprised that the road isn’t better maintained. I wonder if there is a better access road from the other side for servicing the equipment?

We turned around and went back to a camping spot we had seen next to a grassy meadow, and stayed there for the night. This place was so pristine and beautiful! If it had been in Arizona they would have had to rope off the meadow to keep people from wrecking it from overuse. The meadow was covered with little yellow flowers, and upon closer observation I saw that they were all dandelions. Everyone calls them weeds but dandelions are one of my favorite flowers! Their petals closed up at night but as soon as the morning sun appeared, the dandelions all started opening and the bright yellow petals looked like miniature suns themselves. We could just about see it happening right before our eyes but still I would have liked to have had a time lapse camera to photograph that.

The spot where we were camped out had something for everyone – a pretty flower-covered meadow for me, a mountainside for Rich to hike, some real nice rock outcroppings for the kids to climb on – plus “lots of nature” as Josh always says. The forest was mostly Douglas fir with a few aspen trees, whereas in Arizona it’s mostly ponderosa pine. In the leaf litter under the trees, we even found a few puff balls. One of the cliffs had a cave in it but it was up high and we didn’t have our climbing gear. It would have been the perfect spot to stay and play all day, but we were planning to head down to El Malpais so we had to break up camp. Mount Taylor is at the top of my list of places to go the next time we have another long weekend!

DAISY MOUNTAIN HIKE ~ April 7, 2007

This trail on the west side of Daisy Mountain apparently had been there long before the master-planned community of Anthem was built, because the Boy Scouts all knew about it. In fact, a friend of ours who is a Boy Scout led the way for us. He had gone up and down the mountain several times as training for a Grand Canyon hike. My husband was taking this opportunity to start getting in shape for climbing Humphrey’s Peak. I just wanted to see what the view was like.

It was 68° when we left our house. At about 8:47am we met in the Anthem Walgreens parking lot and at 9:00am we started walking. We had to cross the street and go into a gated community (closed to cars but with an opening for pedestrians). It was tiring just walking through the neighborhood streets because the development was built on a slope so it was all uphill. We passed a golf course and turned up a road past a cluster of mailboxes. I don’t remember any of the street names and all of the houses look the same.

By the time we reached the back edge of the neighborhood where it meets the mountain, we had already gained considerable altitude. From there it was a steep climb on the path up the mountain. Actually, we didn’t even make it to Daisy Mountain itself as we thought we would. The trail continued on in that direction along the ridge, but when we got to the top of whatever side peak this was, we decided to turn around. Even though this was a terrible year for wildflowers, we still managed to see a few and the ocotillos were blooming quite nicely.

This trail was a lot steeper, for a longer distance, than last week’s hike. I thought my legs were going to be sore for a week after this one, but by the next day they were fine. Our youngest son just turned 7 and one minute he would be whining and asking to be carried. The next minute he would be running up ahead with the older kids. So I guess he couldn’t have been too tired – just wanted a free ride! The walk back down the mountain didn’t seem to take nearly as long as the hike up (as is usually the case, thank goodness!). But trudging once again through the endless maze of neighborhood streets seemed to take forever. By this time we were really hot, tired, and thirsty. When we finally got back to the car at 1:00pm, the temperature was 87°.