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Atop Pikes Peak with Colorado Springs in the background
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I have been trying all summer to go on overnight motorcycle rides with my older grandkids. But it has been busy all summer. Either I am needed to help with something or the grandkids have "hangouts", band, drama club, or other fun things to occupy their time.
Mylo has been one of the busiest with starting high school and being in the band. Finally, the week before school starts, there were 2 days in a row without band or something in the way. After we talked over possible destinations, we decided to ride up to Rocky Mountain National Park. The only problem was that I couldn't find a decent hotel for under $300. I really love my grand kids, but even Mylo agreed that was just too much.
So we scaled it back and decided to just do 2 days of long rides to interesting places.
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| Ready to Ride |
We started about 7:00, and the first priority was some breakfast. We've been to Green Mountain Falls and The Pantry before, and that's was where Mylo wanted to start. We rode through Garden of the Gods because that's my standard practice when I'm heading out on Highway 24. There are very few cars and it was very cool and beautiful. We have so many pictures of us in this park that neither one of us wanted to stop and take yet more, so we didn't.
It was a pretty nice ride up to Green Mountain Falls. I'm not sure why but we had almost no traffic, which is very unusual for this road. We arrived at The Pantry and found good parking and no line to get into the restaurant. We sat in the front garden. Mylo ordered their famous cinnamon roll french toast and I got a couple eggs and sausage. As usual, it was good food. We took our time because we really weren't in a big hurry today.
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| Breakfast at the Pantry |
Mylo told me about all of the band practices and just how hot it was some days. Usually everyone had a massive jug of water with them. Mylo kept forgetting it. They also stopped every hour or so to cool off and to reapply sunscreen. Band practice lasted for two weeks, with the average high temperature being in the mid-90s.
We talked a little bit about possible routes, including going all the way to Taylor Park over Cottonwood Pass. We could also try to do a loop out on Highway 285 or up Highway 9 or many other places. I mentioned that just a few weeks ago I had been on top of Pikes Peak when my brother and his wife came out to visit us. Mylo's eyes lit up and I asked "do you want to go up Pikes Peak?" and got a shouted "YES" in reply.
So I pulled out my phone and started trying to get us reservations for Pikes Peak. The City of Colorado Springs runs the park and they have been requiring reservations during the summers for several years now. The last few times I've been, it hasn't been that busy but it's only $2. We had really bad cell phone service so it took me about 20 minutes to get the reservation. But we were on for 9:00.
We finished our breakfast and loaded back up on the bike and headed towards Pikes Peak. Just like the last time I went up, there were no cars in the queue. We pulled up and the lady asked me for my reservation. I probably could have gotten a reservation right then but I had one so I showed it to her. I forget the exact cost but it was probably $35 for both of us. The reservation just gets you the ability to get in; you still have to pay the entry fee.
We started up the road and enjoyed the cooling temperatures. It wasn't very hot yet but you could tell it was going to be a warm day. I had my 360 camera mounted on the bike so I could take pictures all the way up and down. We stopped at a few overlooks, got pictures. A couple of times we didn't even get off the bike.
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| Lower part of the road up Pikes Peak |
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| First scenic overlook looking over Cascade |
One of the running gags on the mountain is Big Foot. There are several "Big Foot Crossing" signs along the way. I don't know if there have been any "Sightings" on the mountain, but they sure play it up. So when we got to Crystal Creek Reservoir, we stopped to get a picture by the Big Foot statue. It's about a 9 foot wood carving. I have pictures by this statue with many people over the years.
We didn't go into the gift shop, but we did use the latrines. Luckily it was still a cool day so the aromantic ambiance wasn't too strong. We loaded back on the bike and continued our ride up.
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Crystal Creek Reservoir - really low on water
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| Posing by Big Foot |
The ride between the first and second gift shops is beautiful winding forest roads, but nothing very steep or scary. The forests all around the Front Range region have had a lot of bark beetle kill off. But Pikes Peak itself seemed to be pretty healthy. When I'm riding around Colorado there are some areas that just break your heart with all the dead trees, but this ride didn't have that feeling.
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| Riding through the forest between the gift shops |
Once we passed the second gift shop, the climb really began. The trees quickly faded away, the road steepened, and the shoulders of the road got thinner. In many places there was only about 2 feet of shoulder on the road before you'd drop off several hundred feet.
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| I title this as "Guardrails are for wimps" |
Mylo seemed to have no problems with the heights, even on those sections of the road with no guard rails and steep drop-offs. We were in no hurry, so we rode the last part well below the speed limit. A few times almost creeping along, not because we were scared, but so we could admire the views. I took a lot of pictures, well over 50, but they get redundant very fast with so much scenery around.
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| The winding road below us and the vistas behind us |
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| More twisting roads and vistas |
We started just after 9:00 and finally reached the peak around 10:30. To my surprise, it was very warm on top. The temperature was around 55° but the sun was shining and there was no wind blowing so it felt much warmer to me. We talked about it for a few minutes then decided to leave coats on the bike. We could always come back and get them if we needed them.
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| Behind us is Colorado Springs and some forest fire smoke |
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| Camera is looking south, maybe Pueblo way out there |
We started by walking over to where a train was parked. There were just a few people around. They had all gone into the visitor center. So we decided to get our pictures before either another train arrived or they all came back. We took several pictures and then started walking counter-clockwise around the peak to get a few more pictures out more to the north.
While we were taking pictures I heard a rumble. It started very low and quickly got louder. Suddenly an F-16 fighter jet came from the south and flew up and over the peak of the mountain. It was ear-shatteringly loud as it passed overhead, just a few hundred feet above us. The lead pilot's wingman didn't come right over the top but just a little bit to the west of the peak. I tried to get a picture but my camera isn't super fast and only managed to get a picture of the wing mate off to the northwest of us as a tiny dot.
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| F-16 that overflew the top of Pikes Peak |
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| Freaking out as the F-16 flies over |
Everyone around us was laughing and talking because it scared the poop out of most of us. A couple of Air Force guys nearby commented that there was no way that was an approved fly over. Oh and did I mention it had the Thunderbird symbol on the bottom of the jet
It took a few minutes before everybody settled down and got back to what we were doing before the jet flew by. Mylo and I walked over to the train and glanced in just to see what it was like. Then we walked around to the other side and took a few more pictures. We slowly started walking towards the visitor center, taking yet more pictures.
I'm using my 360 camera rather than carrying around my tripod to use with my phone. My phone takes better pictures, but it's slow and setting up the tripod takes a while. But with the 360 camera and the selfie stick, I just hold the camera out from us 3 feet and push the remote button to take a picture. Then later I have to load the pictures into my computer or phone and frame the picture. Since it takes an entire sphere, I can frame a 4x3 or 16x9 or even 9x16 picture anywhere in that 360 sphere. It's great when it works, except that it's a bit lower quality. And sometimes you get a bad stich line where the 2 images get stitched together. Like that jet picture above where one the cameras has the sun blasting it and the other side doesn't.
Anyway, the other annoying this is if you change the camera mode to video and forget, there's no obvious way to tell. I switched to video and forgot, so the "pictures" I took during the next 30 minutes were all actually short videos and none of them came out well. Another lesson taught but probably not learned. I'm sure I'll do that again several more times.
We went into the visitor center and got donuts and a couple sodas. Their donuts are famous, not because they are so delicious but because they are cooked up here at fourteen thousand feet of elevation. That high, water boils at only 186°. So it is much harder to get things to bake properly. They use a special recipe so that the donuts cook. I think the best thing about them is that they are warm and they are covered in sugar and cinnamon. The drinks were also kind of unique. Our fountain drinks came in something like a Solo cup but it was aluminum. I let Mylo keep them as souvenirs.
Mylo was not impressed with the donuts. Then we headed back out the doors to take more pictures. We walked all the way around the edge of the peak taking pictures and going "OO-AH". Then we walked over to the big monolith in the middle that I guess is the highest spot in the area and got our picture with the Pikes Peak sign. My camera was still in video mode but I managed to get a screen capture that looks okay.
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| On the top of Pikes Peak |
We continued looking for another 20 minutes then figured it was about time to start heading down. Temperature still felt great but the sun beating on us was starting to get a little wearing. We both put on sunscreen when we arrived but it still felt like the sun was blistering our skin.
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| Descending and still wonderful views |
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| More beautiful views |
The ride down is even a little more nerve-wracking than the ride up. Your bike or your car really wants to get moving down those steep roads. And you can't just ride the brake or you'll burn them out and do pretty bad damage. So you have to keep it in a fairly low gear and then use brakes every 30 or 40 seconds and then let off to let them cool.
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| Stopped at a scenic overlook to let the brakes cool |
There were still fantastic views off of the mountain. We could probably see hundreds of miles out across the state. There was some smoke down to the southwest of us but everything north and east was beautifully clear. We stopped a few times for pictures but none of them came out well. I did finally realize that my camera was in video mode and got that corrected but that didn't help when you get the bike turned wrong or the sun is in the wrong place.
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| Slowly descending |
When we reached the bottom around 12:15, I talked to Mylo about whether we wanted to go get lunch right now or to wait a little while. We decided to wait just a little while so we headed for the Florissant Petrified Forest National Monument. The clouds had started to gather a little bit and not far past the town of Divide it started to sprinkle on us. Just like a recent ride with Rayden, I didn't want rain to ruin this ride so I pulled over and we put on our rain gear.
The rain never got very hard but it was pretty consistent for about half an hour. We turned left at Florissant to head up to the national monument and that was about when the rain quit. But not only did the rain quit, the sun came out. Within minutes we were both stifling hot in that rain gear. Just before the National Monument there is a homestead ranch and we decided to pull off there and remove the rain gear. And since we were there we toured the homestead for 10 minutes.
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| Pulling off our rain gear |
Just a few minutes later we reached the visitor center. We started by watching a video about the history of the Florissant area. There used to be so many massive logs and other fossilized material around the area that the train used to stop just to let people hop off and collect some. Unfortunately they pretty well stripped the area clear and what is left are the massive logs too big to remove. But even that didn't stop them. One of the biggest logs was going to be taken to a world's fair for an exhibit but they broke several saw blades trying to cut it off. Luckily for us the log is there and so are the leftover pieces of the saw blades sticking out of them.
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| Mylo by the triple petrified tree stump |
We didn't walk around for too long because we were both getting hungry. Back on the bike. We rode the rest of the 30 minutes up to Cripple Creek. The sandwich shop that I usually eat at was closed so we drove around for a little bit looking for a parking space and then went into the Midnight Rose restaurant. I've eaten there many times in the past and it's pretty good but it's a little dark.
After lunch we decided to go ride the narrow gauge train here in town. It doesn't go very far, just a few miles out of town to an open and working gold mine. Some mines in the area have cool names like the Mollie Kathleen mine, Vindicator, American Eagles, or the Stratton mine. But this massive open pit mine is just called the Cripple Creek & Victor mine.
After paying for our tickets we had about 20 minutes to wait till the train left. There was a large Latina family already on board and they were actively trying to take pictures of each other. I offered to take pictures of the group, then spent the next 5 minutes taking every variation they could think of.
The engine was a genuine steam train. The engineer was loading coal into a small box at the back of the engine and the smoke and smell of burning coal was very strong in the air. There was also a large water tank beside the engine but I didn't see him refill the tank at all.
When it was time to go, the engineer began making announcements for everyone to board, and the conductor came around asking to see everyone's tickets. There were about 30 people spread among 3 cars, but each car could have held 30 people so we weren't even half full.
I took a lot of 360 photos through the trip, but most didn't come out because Mylo and I weren't sitting right next to each other, and there was a vertical pole that blocked Mylo in every shot. Otherwise, the views from the train were great.
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| I didn't think about that vertical bar at all, it ruined almost every picture |
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| Looking back at Cripple Creek. Just a touch of forest fire smoke in the air. |
At full speed we were going about 10 to 15 miles an hour. We clanked along while the engineer told us stories about the area and the train. There used to be several towns up here and a lot more people when the gold mines were running. One town, Gillett, burned down and many of the remaining buildings were moved to Cripple Creek as historic scenery. In fact, Cripple Creek burned down twice before the city council passed a law requiring all large buildings to be made of brick.
From the train, you can't really see the gold mine. It is a massive open pit at the top of the mountain and we could just see the hill sides leading up to it. But from Google Maps, the mine is massive. I'm sure the company deliberately runs the mine in a way to prevent it from becoming an eyestore to the surrounding area. Cripple Creek sits northwest of the mine and Victor sits southeast. This is the most profitable gold mine in Colorado history. Hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold have been removed from the mine.
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| The Cripple Creek and Victor mine |
We only went a few miles before we reached the end of the line. The engineer released a valve which caused a steady whoosh of steam and the train slowed to a stop. He fiddled for a bit with the controls then pulled out a couple chunks of coal and threw them in the fire box. He told us how many gallons of water the engine held but I don't remember. He said they had to refill the tanks about every 3rd run.
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| We could see tailings from the mine in the distance. |
Then he turned some valves again and we started rolling backward but instead of going back down the tracks we'd come up, we veered off to our right for about 50 yards. He stopped again, fiddled and we moved forward. But, again, we switched to a different track headed back North. He stopped after a bit and told us this was what he called "Echo Valley". He blew the train whistle for a bit and when he stopped, we could hear a good 4 or 5 seconds of echo coming back to us.
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| Looking out over Echo Valley |
One more time we pulled up to a dead end, then reversed out. I never saw him change any switches, so they must just be setup that moving one way puts you on the turnout, then pulling back forward switches you around. I listened the last time and I think I heard the wheels clink extra loud as we went through the switch. This left us backing the last part of the tracks back into Cripple Creek so the next batch of riders would pull straight out like we did.
With a last whoosh we slowed and stopped in the station. The engineer wished us all a good day and said we could come forward and ask any questions we might have. Several people did ask questions and we listened in. That's when he told us about the water tanks. But when it was our turn, I just said we wanted a picture with him. This time there was no dumb bar ruining the shot.
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| Cripple Creek Railroad and our Engineer |
Our original plan was to go get ice cream after the train ride but neither Mylo nor I were hungry. We'd been snacking on Gardettos and pretzels through the whole ride. So we just got on the bike and started the ride back towards home. I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures coming down off of Cripple Creek because it was a beautiful view. I've done the ride 40 or 50 times and maybe I've just become numb to the scenery.
The temperature was in the low 70s when we left Cripple Creek but by the time we pulled into Woodland Park it was into the mid 80s. Now we were ready for ice cream. I don't know of a really good ice cream shop in Woodland Park but they do have a McDonald's and a Sonic. Mylo voted for the Sonic.
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| A big raven at the Sonic |
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| Not at all afraid of us |
I parked the bike and we got off. We were just going to sit at the picnic tables. As we walked over we saw a great big black bird on top of one of the garbage cans. It was sitting so still I wondered if it wasn't some sort of a statue but then it fluttered just a little bit. We weren't sure at the time what it was. Either a Raven or a Crow but I took pictures and it appears to be a Raven because the throat feathers are shaggy.
It didn't move at all as we walked past and around to order our food. Mylo got a blizzard and I got a small strawberry shake. It wasn't until they brought our food out to us that the raven finally flew away.
On our ride home the temperature continued to increase until it was about 95°. We still rode through Garden of the Gods but I took no pictures. We were both sweating by the time we got to Mylo's house. It had been a great day but I was exhausted and so was Mylo.
Day 2
We did do a second day's ride but I took very few pictures. Sometimes all the picture taking gets in the way of just hanging out together and enjoying the time. We started with breakfast at McDonald's then meandered our way up through Glen Eagle, Monument, and Palmer Lake. We stopped to gas up the motorcycle and grab sodas and a snack. We also decided to go to the Safeway and grab sushi rather than go to a restaurant for lunch.
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| McDonalds breakfast doesn't disappoint |
We took Highway 105 out to Perry Park. If you've never been to Perry Park it is a small community about 30 or 40 miles outside of Colorado Springs nestled up against the Front Range. It doesn't look like much but when you get to the back side it's almost another Garden of the Gods. Vertical red rocks sticking up out of the ground to 100 feet. They have a beautiful golf course and a nice lake.
We rode around Perry Park admiring the views. Eventually I spotted an actual park. It had playground equipment and covered picnic tables, which seemed perfect. I rode down off the main hill into the park. We weren't quite ready for lunch so we just took sodas and snacks with us. It was a nice little break and we just sat talking for 45 minutes.
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| We took one picture by the lake in Perry Park |
We got back on the bike and rode out of Perry Park and continued north up Highway 105. After 15 miles we turned right, which took us up and over a small hill and down into Castle Rock. I stopped and checked for a park in the area. There seemed to be a little park at the center of a bunch of baseball fields so we drove over there.
There was already a group of yard maintenance workers sitting at the tables eating lunch so we grabbed a table near them and ate our own lunch. It was just starting to get up into the mid-80s. Mylo had band practice at 3:00 so he needed to be home closer to 2:00. We came out the backside of Castle Rock on Lake Gulch Road to Highway 83. We went a little bit west to Russellville Road and turned north.
About ten miles up Russellville Road, we turned right into Deerfield. This took us over to Highway 86 and eventually to Elizabeth. We turned south and took a few back roads and eventually wound up in Elbert. Another 20 miles of twist and turn brought us back on Burgess road and home. This wasn't nearly as long a ride as yesterday but I figured Mylo really didn't need to be exhausted before band.
I absolutely love taking grandkids on rides like this. Especially with the helmet intercoms allowing us to chat, joke, share stories, point out interesting things and get to know each other
