I love mountains. I love driving through mountains. Pikes Peak is a famous mountain. Mmmmm

Pikes Peak is famous for a race to summit that’s been held almost continuously since 1916. The winning time was just under 21 minutes, when none of the road was paved. Paved sections were introduced in 2002, and the last record set when there any dirt sections at all was a little over 11 minutes. Today, the road is paved all the way to the top, and the modern record is just under 8 minutes in an all electric full race vehicle.

I have no illusions about racing Pikes Peak, but part of my motivation for driving it was the race. I wanted to drive the same roads as those factory backed professional drivers, and get a feel for what it might look like at ‘ludicrous’ speeds. I was not disappointed.

The other motivation to driving it was a text joke, from my brother Mark, when I remarked to him “I can see Pike’s Peak from here!”. Here, being about an hour away when I first spotted it from the highway. He suggested I drive it, and I thought, “Why not?”

Pike’s Peak, at 14,115′, is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is also one of 54 mountains in Colorado that rises to over 14,000′ above sea level. Furthermore, it’s classified as “ultra-prominent”, meaning it rises very high compared to its surroundings, especially the next closest mountain. I did not know this until I drove to Colorado this trip. When I drove there last year, the cloud cover obscured both the Front Range and the Rocky’s just behind(west) of that range. But on this trip, I could see for quite some distance driving towards Denver from I-70. About an hour away, I spied this peak in the southwest that was distinctly separated from the Rocky’s in front of me. Here is what I saw. Bear in mind this was more than an hour away(click to see larger image):

I asked Aria if she would like to drive it, and she agreed. She brought her little Polaroid camera, and I brought my DSLR.

It was a beautiful drive, full of twists and turns and magnificent views. With Aria riding shotgun, she was able to take lots of pictures and video while I concentrated on not driving over the guardrail-less cliffs. Unfortunately, the wind and snow conditions at the peak were so bad that the last two miles were closed on that particular day. Nevertheless, we were able to park the Mustang and spend a few minutes outside. Here is a video of our ascent:

At that point, Mile Marker 16 Devil’s Playground, we were at 12,780 feet. This is the highest I’ve ever been. Breathing was fine, and the temperature was well below freezing, but the wind was brutal! It was so bad we had to lean into the wind. Here’s video of us, unable to stop laughing at how brutal it was:

I spoke briefly with a park ranger, who was standing at the road block, watching the plow and massive snow blower trying to clear the last two miles immediately ahead. She confirmed that no one lives on the mountain, which means they all drive up the mountain each day to perform their jobs.

After just a few minutes outside in these conditions, we’d had enough, and climbed back into the car for a snack and catch our breath. This was my windshield after being parked up there for just those two few minutes:

After a long trip back down, with several pauses to take more photos, we stopped to get pickles from the Pickle Shack, and ate vegan lunch at Fern’s:

We took many more photographs than shown here or in the video above, but in the interest of time, I’m publishing this now. Later, I may post another entry with photos only.