A little late on this blog, but we didn’t get home until nearly 10 PM yesterday.
As usual a nice cool night to bring the trailer temperature down. Fridays trip was a double header, we were heading out to Manitou Springs, just north of Colorado Springs, which was about 60 miles away.
Our first stop was at the Caves of the Winds. Normally I would expect to descend into caves, but on this occasion we had a steep climb of about 300 ft and 4 switchbacks to reach the entrance.
From Whence we Came
Once we got to the site we had to get tickets, and found out the next tour was at 2:15, about 30 minutes wait. That should work. We had another trip booked at 4 PM, and we needed to be there at 3:30. This was a 45 minute tour, so we should be out by 3 o’clock, 10 minutes to the next site, no problem.
We started the tour at 2:20, luckily we could enter via a tunnel, not like they did 100 years ago, using a rope ladder to climb down. The black marks on the roof are caused by carbon deposits where earlier visitors extinguished their candles, it was deemed unsafe to climb back up a rope ladder with a lighted candle!
First of all we had to have the “obligatory photo” a lot of tours now insist on this, they say it is so you can purchase a memento of your visit, but my suspicious mind thinks big brother may be behind this, trying to keep a record of who enters public places. What, me paranoid… never!!
Anyway the tour got underway, it was a pleasant 12° in the caves, but one thing was missing…. moisture. Nearly every tourist cave system I have been in has been wet, puddles on the floor, water on the walls, dripping from overhead etc. This place was really dry, and as we looked around there wasn’t really a great abundance of stalagmites and stalactites. The majority of the ones we did see were small, only a few inches in length.
They did have a couple larger ones
There we also a couple of columns, where stalactite meets stalagmite
To protect the caves environment Colorado has passed a law that allows a fine of up to $2500 for touching any surface inside the caves except for the concrete floor and hand rails. In addition to this, the offenders (or offenders parent) can have their driving licence suspended for a year!
Below is a small area that has been provided for those that just had to touch! It is quite polished.
By 3:15 the tour was still in full swing, and time was not on our side. I spoke to the guide and she arranged to have some one come and escort back to the main area as there were still about 10 minutes left in the tour.
We made it out to the truck in record time, and a quick drive down the switch backs (no problem with new brakes!!) got us on our way. As we approached our destination along a one way street we hit a traffic jam, it turns out the jam was caused by people going to the same place and trying to get a space in the parking lot. Lyn got out and walked ahead to see what the problem was and also to pick up our tickets. The traffic started to move, and we eventually made it to the parking lot with about 10 minutes to spare.
This trip was on a cog railway up to Pikes Peak summit, 14,110 fee above sea level. Below is a cog train about 3/4 of the way to the summit
The train is similar to a normal train, but there is a cog wheel on each driven axle that engages a third rail.
The trip was 8.7 miles long, with a rise of approximately 8800 feet, at times the gradient was 1 in 4 (25%).
Below are some general views
Marmot close to the track
Below are some big horn sheep.
Above the tree line, looking back on the rail tracks
The summit station
Proof we were there!
We walked around the summit for a while, but the temperature was down around 5°C, and the altitude really made a difference to breathing up there. This was about 3,000 higher than we were a week or so ago as we crossed over the mountains. Below are some general summit views.
