Our Adventure to Pike's Peak

On Saturday we decided to go to Pike's Peak and drive up to the summit. It was a beautiful day the sun was shining and it was about 72 degrees. We found a very neat restaurant as we turned onto Pike's Peak Hwy. It was called Colorado Wine. Since is was such a nice day out we decided to eat on the porch in the beautiful Colorado sunshine. The food was fabulous.

So off we go on our adventure to summit Pike's Peak (the easy way of course). When we arrived at the gate to the drive to the summit the park ranger said it was cloudy at the top and if the weather conditions got bad the would close down the roads going up. Well it was sunny where we were so we decided to continue. As we ascended the mountain it started to rain. The mountain is beautiful. Next it started to sleet, then hail, then snow. All in about 15 minutes. You sure don't get that kind of weather in Indiana. The sun came back out and we enjoyed the view of climbing (driving) the mountain. Every turn provided a new and breathtaking view. As we came to the summit it was getting cloudy. We got out looked around for just a few minutes, but couldn't see much, so we decided to go back down to a lower elevation where the clouds weren't so thick.

As we drove the fog was so thick we couldn't see but a few feet in front of our van. There are no guardrails along the road, so if you drive off the road, you drive off the mountain. Not something we wanted to do. John had to stop a few times because the visibility was so bad. As we approached the check point half way down, the road was blocked off and the park rangers were not allowing anyone to go up to the summit. Apparently there was a snow storm at the summit and the people up there had to wait until it cleared before they could drive down. I guess we left at the right time.

I hope you enjoy our photos.