Day 7 - 12/02/2021

Day 7 - 12/02/2021

Today was unexpectedly more eventful than yesterday and let me tell you how.

Today we had Pikes Peak on our agenda. Pikes peak is the highest summit of the southern front range of Rocky Mountains in the North America. It is situated at 14,115 feet tall near Colorado Springs, CO - which is about 1 hour and 30 minutes long drive from Akshay & Kishori's place. There is a scenic railway - COG Railway - that starts from Manitou Springs - which is nearby Colorado Springs, and takes you all the way to the summit. We had a reservation for 10 AM train.

At 7:45 AM in the morning we learnt that the registration for the car is expired and there is a hold on the car from Denver City. We had two options: First, take the car and just hope that we don't get pulled over. Second, to look for rental car.

We already had an "experience" yesterday so we decided to not take any risk and started to look for rental car. After couple of tries, we finally found an "Enterprise rent-a-car" with a car available immediately. By the time we completed the paperwork and started on our way, it was 8:30 AM and we were really going to cut it close.

I-25 is one of the busiest interstate that I have driven on. It is a 6-lane wide highway with slow moving traffic, especially on a work-day morning. And although the traffic is lighter after city, until the time we were past city we weren't really sure if we were going to make it. After city limits the speed limit increased to 75 mph and we cruised past all other traffic, and finally we reached the train station just in time to catch the train.

The COG Railway was really interesting. It was diesel-powered locomotive with self- propelled railcars. It is based in Manitou Springs and goes all the way up to the summit.

The views were spectacular from the train. As we started climbing 10,000 feet, the trees started to disappear and we started to see the tiny towns, lakes, and mighty peaks of Rocky Mountains at distance. We could also feel the light-headed ness due to lack of oxygen.

The best part of the train ride back and forth was the time constraint you are bound by to make the ride back. The trip to summit was about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and we had 40 minutes to spend at the summit. At the summit I was truly lost just looking at the rest of the mountain peaks. They were at a distance and from where we stood, we were like the lone survivors at the summit. It was all very breathtaking. Had it not for the train ride, I would have spent much more time there, just staring at the view and losing myself in that wonderful world.

It reminded me of my last trip in Himalayas. My friends and I visited Gomukh - the origin of the river "Ganga". We flew to Delhi from Mumbai and from there took a bus to Rishikesh, and then another bus to Gangotri. From Gangotri, you have to walk all the way up to Gomukh. As we started approaching Gangotri, you start to see the snow-covered peaks at a distance, and that's what I remembered.

The train ride back down was equally beautiful, the only difference was that we all felt a lot more tired and light-headed. Oh, and to my surprise - I met Naveed & Najim on my train as well. I guess they took my suggestion to take the train as well.

All in all it was about 3 hours of total Pikes Peak, back and forth journey. we were starving as we got back down, so we decided to quickly find a restaurant and eat something before our next stop - Garden of the Gods.

Garden of the Gods is around 1300 acres of sandstone formations near Colorado Springs. These formations are unique and has sensetive soil that can easily be damaged.

We just drove around the loop and captured few clicks. I belive constant travel for past 6 day was finally catching up with us as we felt really tired by the end of the loop.

We started our trip back home shortly after and were home by 5 PM. It was the soonest we had gotten back on any day so far during this trip.
I guess that is all for today. Pretty tired, and ready to go to bed. Tomorrow is pretty light and let's see what happens. But for now, signing off for today.