Pike's Peak

There are three different ways to get to the top of Pike's Peak. You can drive, you can hike, or as we did, you can take the Cog Railway (http://www.cograilway.com/). The Cog Railway has been taking folks to the top of the 14,110 foot mountain since 1891. It is both the highest and the longest Cog Railway in the world.

We learned some interesting information on the trip up. We found out that Pike's Peak was named for an early explorer of the southwest, Zebulon Pike. However, Zebulon Pike never actuallly made it to the peak even though he did attempt to climb the mountain in 1806. The first man to make it to the peak was a botanist named Edwin James in 1820. Since James had already ascended many peaks in Colorado and had some peaks named for him, the mountain was named after Zebulon Pike.

A trip up Pike's Peak was the inspiration for "America the Beautiful". The song was written by Katharine Lee Bates during a carriage ride to the summit in 1893. Ms. Bates was a visiting faculty from Wellesley College teaching a summer course at Colorado College.

Of course our favorite story of Pike's Peak was not told on the train but is the story of Kathy's parents hiking down Pike's Peak. We didn't really appreaciate the story until we saw the trail for ourselves. If you notice the small sign in the 2nd picture, that is the trailhead to the Barr's trail. If you notice it looks like the trail just drops off the mountain, it does! After seeing the top of the trail, we are amazed that Kathy is not an orphan.