Colorado Springs Part 3 - PIkes Peak and Glen Eyrie Castle - October 18 - 21

The sun is out with a clear sky. It did not look hazy either, so we decided to do the drive up to Pikes Peak. We were 5th in line to get up the mountain when the gates opened at 9am. $15 per person admittance fee. We ended up the 5th car in the lineup going up. Took me 45 minutes of windy roads to reach the summit at 14,115 Feet. Wow was it cold up there at 23F and windy. It was 44F when we started up the hill.

Entrance Gate

Just about at the top.

 

Visitors Centre where they have the famous high altitude donuts. The café is one floor below.

Here comes the Cog Train.

Glad we did not take the train, everyone is stuffed in like sardines for an hour and a half trip up the mountain and then an hour and a half trip down the mountain after a 40 minute layover. 

Almost got blown away!

It is really weird. It's clear at the bottom and looked clear on top but when we got to the top there's a haze ....

The front of the original Visitor's Centre from 1873

There are 58 peaks in Colorado that rise above 14,000 feet. However, the only two that have roads to their summits are Mount Evans near Denver and Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs.  Our Canadian Rockies have Mount Robson at the highest of 12,972 feet, you can climb it but not drive up.

Here is a video I shot with my phone. Warning, turn the volume off ... .very windy up there. All the tall peaks in the distance are more 14'ers of the Rocky Mountains.

Starting on the drive back down the mountain we came across a herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep.

A great drive. On the way up the pickup in front of me did not like the drop off edges and mostly stayed in the middle of the road for the whole 20 miles.

Wednesday we did some shopping, I got a pedicure and Ray washed 2/3 of the coach. He will finish it tomorrow.

Thursday off to Glen Eyrie Castle. 

Glen Eyrie is an English Tudor-style castle built in 1871 by General William Jackson Palmer, the founder of Colorado Springs. There are 17 guest rooms in the castle, as well as 7 meeting rooms including the Castle Great Hall and 2 dining rooms.

You can actually book a room there to stay in the castle or in one of their lodges scattered around the property. When we arrived at the gate house, the gentleman gave us a pass to just drive through and made us promise not to get out of our car.  For that reason, all of these shots were taken with our Samsung S 21 and 22 phones. hanging out the windows. :) We were able to stop at the carriage house and buy a coffee. Since we were allowed out of the car here, Ray was able to get a couple more pictures of the castle and the Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep grazing right outside as well as turkeys. The sun is just right to show off all of the fall colours. Spectacular. A lot of the rocks are very similar to Garden of the Gods which starts essentially across the street from the turnoff to the castle.

First house we noticed once we got to the gate.

Our first view of the castle.

We've been very lucky with all the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep we've been able to see.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing.

Also wild turkeys just up the little hill from the sheep.

The sheep must be residents in the area as quite a few google pictures show them here in the exact same spot.

Looking towards the Garden of the Gods

The courtyard of the Carriage House.

What lovely scenery their guests get to enjoy.

Back in the car and home for lunch. Ray finished up the washing the motorhome, while I did a bit of shopping. Another great day.

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Friday, we decided to go for an hours drive north towards Denver and go to the Castlewood 

Canyon State Park for a bit of a walk. 

We had a gorgeous sunrise this morning. First one in a while as there have been no clouds to speak of for days.

Ray found this cute little breakfast place called Le Peep. A delightful little French Café. We knew it was going to be good as the parking lot is packed and it is. Fueled up for our walk.

Back down the highway to Castlewood Canyon State Park. There are two entrances, one on end side of the Canyon. We paid the Iron Ranger and off we went. The fall colours were beautiful.

Castlewood Canyon State Park is a Colorado state park near Franktown, Colorado. The park retains a unique part of Colorado's history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst in 1933. The event sent a 15-foot (5 m) wave of water all the way to downtown Denver resulting in a flood. Wikipedia.

The old homestead.

Driving down the road we noticed a sign for a cave and there it was.

Next is the trail to the waterfall.

I took a close up picture of the falls. My Galaxy S22 Ultra does a pretty good job. :)

Zigging and Zagging along the trail.

The old dam that burst. You can see the path on the other side of the canyon.

We walked back to the car and went to the other park entrance which is 5 miles away.

And the shot in the other direction:

Another great adventure. Tomorrow we are off to New Mexico on our way to Amarillo Texas. Fortunately, we only missed one thing our list of things to see, the Broadmoor Seven Falls. We are leaving a day early, as there is a storm coming in with some snow and we don't want to be here for that. Colorado Springs is a beautiful city, we sure have enjoyed our time here.

On a side note. Peak RV Resort has lots of rules ... they charge you if you have mail delivered there, they charge you $25 to wash your rig and the biggest thing is if you have someone out to fix your rig they have to be registered with them and they charge the service tech $50 to allow them into the park and guess who they pass that along to. Quite a rip-off we think. Also, they are located close to Highway 21 so fairly noisy. We would not stay there again even though they were less expensive compared to the RV Parks closer to Garden of the Gods.