Off Road Travels Down Gold Camp Road and Rail To The Top of Pikes Peak

(Cripple Creek, Colorado) 62 degrees, blue skies

Beginning of Gold Camp Road

Theodore Roosevelt once described the Gold Camp Road trip as having "scenery that bankrupts the English language".  After reading this in a guide book we  certainly thought this might be another jeep worthy trip.  It did not disappoint.  The road leads east from Victor and travels to Colorado Springs and takes about 2 1/2 hours to travel.  It is mostly a dirt road and was narrow at times. It was originally a railroad "short line" route and tours the foothills of the Cheyenne Mountains.  It was a spectacular drive and once again the jeep was very happy.  .

One of our campers @ KOA is building a home along this road and we stopped to see his property.  He found a beautiful place to build a home.  His driveway is a part of the original stagecoach trail to Cripple Creek.  His home will be solar and have a back up generator.  Having electricity brought out here was too expensive. 

John and Jack along the stagecoach trail

We stopped frequently to take pictures and enjoy the quiet beauty.  This road has been closed for about a year and only recently opened.  There were lots of wildflowers blooming and the pine tree scent was wonderful. 

Alpine Lake

We met a man who was biking up this road.  He stopped to talk to us and took our picture.  He had to have been over 70 years old and was not the least bit short of breath.  Amazing feat since the road was a constant up hill climb for miles. 

Overlooking Colorado Springs

The road ends in a very nice neighborhood in Colorado Springs.  We then traveled to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Railway up to Pikes Peak.  This railway has been taking folks up to Pikes Peak for over 100 years.  Reservations in the summertime are a good idea and the cost was $34 per person.  We picked up a box lunch at the cafe and got aboard our car as it climbed to 14,115 feet. Katherine Lee Bates wrote the words to America the Beautiful after her visit to Pikes Peak  in the late 1800's.  

We traveled through several types of terrain. Watch as it changes as we go up and find out  why the  mountains are called the Rockies. I put together this video to show you some of the highlights.  We were lucky and found out our seats was right behind the engineer.  

We really enjoyed this trip. The views from the top were spectacular. We had a fairly clear brisk day. Be sure to take a jacket.  It's chilly up there. 

Our car was the one closest to the edge - yikes!

One giant step!

We enjoyed the rail trip.  We could have drove up but this gave John a chance to relax and enjoy the scenery too.