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Pikes Peak

The trip to pikes peak was a very anticipated one for us. We knew the drive was going to be extremely scary, well at least for me. From the moment we made plans to visit Pikes Peak, I had been watching many images, videos..etc to know the severity of the drive. Each time i saw a videos, i got scared even more. But we still wanted to do it! Pikes Peak is one of the highest summit of rocky mountains range and sits on a height of 14,115 ft. 

We had our breakfast and started driving towards pikes peak. More than excitement, i think I was curious to see the road which is so famous for its adventurous nature.The drive towards Pikes peak was absolutely stunning. I think anywhere you drive in CO, its all going to be so awesome.




We reached the entrance by 10 in the morning. There was a big queue of vehicles lined up to experience Pikes Peak. Can you believe this is how the famous Pikes Peak highway starts? Well it was already narrow, and gave us a clue of what awaits us.


Our first stop was to enjoy the mountain reservoir inside the park. It was a pretty sight, there were people who where fishing and kayaking. Deep blue water reflecting bright sky.


We resumed our drive shortly after. The road was not so scary till this point and the views were so good. But as the road started winding up we reached the level of tree tops. And it was just the beginning. The views changed from woods to tree tops to clouds! I am scared of heights, so whenever i looked out i got chills. It definitely felt like we were driving towards the sky. High elevation roads with so many sharp bends. Everybody was driving below 30mph and as we approached each turn i could feel my heart pounding so hard.I managed to take a video of some parts, well it was better to look at the view through phone than in real :D  You would be driving along crazy areas like 'Devil's play ground', 'Bottomless Pit'. The bottom less pit was indeed scary, you cant see the bottom from your car. The only thing you see would be clouds in level of the road and road winding up again! But once you get used to this view, you don't care anymore. My feeling of scare suddenly changed to excitement and awe.



Once we completed the 19 mile hill climb, it felt like heaven. You are on top of the clouds, literally! You could see clouds if you look down.Majestic views all around! Instead of taking this scary drive, we could also do a cog rail trip, where the train will take you up. But I would say the drive worth it all. I don't have enough words to describe the view, its just majestic. You will feel so small in this wonderful world.




And my favorite pic from the summit!



While we were on the summit suddenly, all the white clouds transitioned into dark gray clouds. You have a visitor center at the summit and they announced severe thunderstorm warning. Everybody on the summit ran into the visitor center. They said, the thunder storms there are extremely dangerous since you are at a very high altitude. This extreme change in climate happened in like 10 mins. We stayed inside the visitor center until the storm was over, like 30 mins. They sell hot doughnuts inside the visitor center. So we grabbed coffee and doughnuts and sat beside a window and enjoyed thunderstorm at 11000+ft high altitude.This pics are from just before the thunderstorm.


 We spent so much time on the summit that we forgot about all other things. We wanted to visit CO bridge, but we ran out of time. But I don't regret a single thing, this did worth it all.
After the thunderstorm when it was safe outside, we decided to drive back. When we started driving i was extremely scared thinking that the road would be slippery. But it became sunny again in a matter of minutes on the summit, and everything was back to normal. Driving down was scary but, it make you feel sad because you are leaving this wonderful place. So we took so many stops in between to enjoy the views.





We reached the valley by 5PM and decided to do a quick visit to garden of Gods, a small red rock canyon. We took the trail and watched the red rocks surrounding the trail. The watched the kissing camel rock formation.


 We completed the day in another one hour and returned to our hotel.



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