July 20

Second night at Cheyenne Mountain State Park brought us a wonderful lightening show out over the Colorado plains. Amazing to watch! We sat up in the parking lot above our tent site having dinner and watching the show. Here's the view from our tentsite.

Morning and we pack up and head off to Panera for breakfast and recharging all things electronic. Pike's Peak on the agenda today - riding the Cog Railway to the top. We find our way to the station through lovely Manitou Springs - home of some eleven mineral springs open to the public. Turns out the Cog Railway takes reservations but do waitlists as well. We don't make the noon train, but are waitlisted for the 1:30. We have about 40 minutes to wait so we hike down the road a bit and visit one of the mineral springs while reading up on the history of the area as we go. We find the spring and take a sip - effervescent and iron tasting. Not at all appealing. Hard to believe people drank that hoping for 'medicinal effects'.

We head back for the Cog Railway and get on the 1:30 train. It is a beautiful day - sunny and not a cloud in the sky....until we get on the train. Then over the mountains storm clouds are gathering. Figures. Train ride up is awesome. Lots of history from the guide and scenery not t

o be missed. Then the lightening and thunder roll in but we keep going. Then, fog. Seriously. We get above treeline and the fog rolls in. We are at the top of Pike's Peak and cannot see 3 feet

in front of us. But, the gift shop donuts are warm and we look at postcards of sites we should be seeing. :-) Here is a picture of the summit - I was running for the train and didn't wait for the guy to get out of the way....but, you can see the fog.

Good news, the skies cleared on the way down and we got to see some of the vistas. Dan's camera has the best pictures so, we'll have to post them later. But, for now, here is a shot of what we saw on the way down.

Once down, we headed off to the park to climb, but we just didn't have the energy. But, once again, we were treated a lightening show over mountains - this time sitting in the parking lot of the town climbing and mountain biking park watching the storm over the Garden of the Gods. Amazing. We head north to Denver, Conifer and Becca/Greg/Kaiya's house to spend a couple of days.

-Clare