Colorado Springs - Pike's Peak

Sunday afternoon we also hit up Pike's Peak Cog Railway. We had good parking and took a bunch of photos. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to spare.

Group shot

We waited and waited. I think I took this photo after chewing Payton out for leaving my camera, bag, and lenses sitting unattended in the station. I was irate. I had asked her to watch my things for a minute or two and she agreed, but failed miserably.

More waiting.

She still looks quite unhappy with me.

But she was nice enough to take this picture of her mom and dad.

And things loosened up from there.

Then the train started moving and Payton got nervous.

She is relaxed no more. Just wait until you see her at Royal Gorge.

The train ride up was looooooooooooooooooong.

But there was plenty to see...

As you can see from the sign, this is "Windy Point" at 12,130 feet elevation, about 2/3 of the way up the mountain.

We finally reached the top almost 2 hours later.

We had donuts at the top of Pike's Peak. Payton was the only one slow enough to get a picture of eating them. They were good. We all had a mild case of altitude sickness, just some dizziness.

It was 15 degrees at the top of Pike's Peak this day. But oddly enough it feels colder in Nebraska at 45 degrees.

Here's the cute little train. Gregg took these outside photos.

Summit of Pike's Peak - 14,115 Feet.

Payton has taken to collecting rocks, so here she is looking for one to transport back for her collection.

On the way down we saw these mountain goats. We hadn't expected to see any wildlife, but were glad to catch a glimpse.

It was a nice trip, but took forever - totaling 4 hours. A lady had to get out half way back down to take care of a little business *under* the train out of view. She didn't look so good when she passed by. That had to be embarrassing. But it did break up the trip down with a little excitement.

Colorado Springs - Cave of the Winds

Still on Saturday... Our tourist destinations moved quickly. We had expected that we would have to squeeze things in but had quite a bit of leisure time on our hands.

We visited the Cave of the Winds which was nearby our previous destination. I tried to get good pictures, but being in a cave makes it a little hard with the lighting and all. I did get plenty of pictures of the backs of heads though.

Payton was excited about this. The girl loves caves.


Our tour guide thought he was quite funny. I did not agree.

Payton has taken on making silly faces and expressions when in photographs.

I blame John Ross for this.

Payton got one of Gregg and I.

This was inscribed on one of the cave walls.

Austin was less than thrilled with the caves. But he doesn't get thrilled about anything really.

My three weirdos.

One of our many stops at gift shops on the trip.

I'm quite excited about moving to Colorado.

Colorado Springs - The Cliff Dwellings

Friday March 18th we loaded up my car and drove down to Colorado Springs for a little get-away. We took in all of the tourist attractions of the area and did a little house hunting for our next duty station.

Colorado Springs would be Gregg’s last duty station where he would retire, so we want to find a nice environment to stay through the kids High School and College years. There is so much to do there and the weather is beautiful, I can’t help to think it’s perfect.

Saturday morning we got up and made our way to a few tourist destinations. First on the list for the morning was The Cliff Dwellings at Manitou Springs, built by the Anasazi Indians between 1100 and 1300 CE.

Gregg talked Austin in to getting inside the storage bin inside one of the homes. I don't think he looks too thrilled.

This pueblo is where the museum and gift shop were located.

Of course there had to be a tipi.

Time to load into the car again, making our way to the Cave of the Winds...