Journey to Pike's Peak

When we were planning our activities in Colorado Springs, I mentioned that we should drive up Pike's Peak.  Scott had apparently done it with his family when he was a kid, and he remembered having the car brakes smoking on the way down.  I talked to a friend and she said the road was much better than it used to be and they now have a checkpoint halfway down to test the temperature on your brakes.  He wasn't thrilled about it, but he agreed to give it a try!

There was a line to go through the toll booth, but once we got on the road, we didn't have a lot of traffic.


It was a beautiful drive.


There were a few points where the road was so steep that you couldn't see it around the corner.


Check out the road we had traveled so far.


The first time we spotted snow near the road, we pulled over so the boys could touch it. They threw snowballs at each other, then Karsten grabbed a snowball and threw it at Scott when he wasn't watching.  Liam was excited and jumped into a big puddle to splash, but when the water splashed on him he was shocked at how cold it was!  Luckily I had a towel int he car so we were able to get his legs dried off so he wouldn't get too cold.


There were a few signs along the road to watch for big horned sheep, so we had our eyes peeled to hopefully see them.  Scott spotted a few when we rounded a corner to go up a steep part of the road.


There was a pull off, so Scott pulled over and we were able to get a good view of the sheep.




So close to the top and the road kept disappearing around the corner.


Each time we stopped, the temperatures got colder since we were getting higher and higher.  By the time we got to the top of the mountain at 14,000 feet, the temps were in the 40s.  We didn't have jeans for the boys, so they had sweatshirts and jackets on.  Not my best mommy moment.


They were excited to be at the top, but they were cold!  Liam didn't want to get too close to the edge because he was afraid he would fall off!


My guys!
 

This giant plaque with America the Beautiful was very impressive.


Karsten wanted to look in the binoculars to find Grandma's house. He thought he saw it but wasn't sure.


The obligatory family shot - looks like something else had Karsten's attention.


At first, Liam didn't want to take a picture because he thought we weould have to get too close to the edge.




Karsten had no fear of the edge of the cliffs.  He saw a guy perched on some rocks a little bit down the mountain and decided he wanted to climb down there.


He and Scott climbed over the rocks and make it to this lookout point.  They went down just a tiny bit but it looked so far away!




We saw this cactus all the way up the mountain.  I thought they were so interesting, on the way down the mountain Karsten saw one and pulled over for me to take a photo.


This was their ninja pose.


Such amazing views - I'm glad we went to the top!


Last photo before we headed down the mountain. Halfway down the mountain they have a checkpoint where they test the temperature on your brakes to ensure they're not overheating.  Scott did a great job driving and our brakes weren't overheating so we were able to keep driving. There was a line of cars in the parking lot with their hoods up so they could cool down.


We had hoped the boys would fall asleep during the drive down the mountain, but no such luck.  They were too busy pickering with each other about toys.  By the time we made it to lunch, they were grouchy and wiped out.


After lunch we went to a tea store in a local mall and the boys were so good while we shopped that we stopped at a play area on the way out. It's tough to see it in this photo, but the boys were laughing  but Liam was scared because the helicopter was moving.  He was holding onto Karsten's arm tightly to feel safe.


After the tea store, we drove over the the Airforce Academy to hopefully see a few planes and show the boys the giant stationary planes.  When we drove up to the gate, we were excited to see the cadets were doing parachute training because we kept seeing parachuters jump out of planes.  Then, we saw a plane take off towing a glider plane.  It was very cool to see - we were all constantly like 'oh, look over there....oh another one....oh another one!'

After waiting in line for a few, we got up to the gate where the nice man with the machine gun asked for Scott's ID and military clearance.  Ummmm, yeah we don't have that.  Turns out that we were at the gate that was for military and contractors only.  We headed back to the highway and drove about 10 miles up the road to the visitor entrance.  We didn't have as good of a view at this entrance, but at least we got to watch for a while at the other entrance.

The academy grounds are just beautiful.  The buildings are located at the base of the mountains, and the cathedral shown on the right side here is beautiful with all of the spires.


The view from an overlook on the way in.  We didn't have time to stop at the visitor center, and I'm not sure the boys are old enough to really enjoy the visitor center.  They would have been happy if we could have just watched the parachuters and gliders!


After our quick tour, we headed back to Grandma's house.  Karsten wanted to play with Kimberly!

Meet the wolves.

Sadly, it was time for us to leave Breckenridge.  We were excited to see family in Colorado Springs, but sad to leave the fun and beauty of Breckenridge.

The drive out of Breckenridge was beautiful through the mountains.  Check out this sign we passed - that's not one we see a lot at home!


Simply beautiful scenery.  We kept telling the boys to take a break from playing and watch out the windows, but I guess they're a little young for that.  They would stop and look out the window, then say 'ok' and start playing again.  When I was little, I remember my dad telling me I would see a lot more if I would get my nose out of a book.  :)


Along the way, we visited a wolf santuary in a town near Colorado Springs.  They take in wolves from a variety of sources and have an impresive property to house the wolves.  Since it was the heat of the day, the wolves were not too active or excited to come see us, but a few were tempted by the treats and came to the fence.


This guy says 'eh, I don't want a treat THAT badly, I'm pretty comfy here.'


The tour guide was very interesting - she shared a lot of information about each wolf and how they came to arrive at the santuary. You could tell she was very passionate about wolves and really enjoyed her job.


Karsten and Liam enjoyed seeing the wolves, but since it was so hot, they quickly got tired of hearing all of the history and back stories on the wolves. Liam had trouble saying wolves, so he called them wolf-ez.


My camera kept trying to focus on the fence rather than the wolves.  I kept thinking that everything I was shooting was blury because it looked blurry through the viewfinder, but when I checked the preview, it looked fine.  Later, Scott realized that I needed to change the focus on the viewfinder, I must have bumped it and put it out of focus.


Our guide told us there are a lot of people who either have wolves or wolf dogs as pets.  Apparently it's easy to find and order them online.  She said they rescued a wolf dog from two college boys who had bought it thinking it would be the perfect pet for them.  When it was a couple of months old, they realized they couldn't handle it and wanted to surrender it.


This guy didn't want to come down and see us, but you could see him eyeing us.


The boys took a break while the guide shared another story about the wolves.


This is an artic wolf - it was very pretty with thick white fur.  She said that these animals are very prized for their fur to make jackets.






This guy looked the most menacing of all of the wolves.  He was in a large cage by himself and she said that only limited staff are able to directly interact with him because he has very unpredictable behavior.


At the end, everyone tried to do a wolf call to see if we could get the wolves to howl back with us.  We howled over and over again but the wolves weren't in a howling mood.


After all that listening, we needed a snack.  I had some granola bars in the car that got a bit melty due to the heat.  Karsten said they still tasted good, when I turned around and saw his face I burst out laughing.


When we got into Colorado Springs, we tried to go to Seven Falls so we could see the beautiful falls.  We got to the entrance and there was construction, but we assumed it was just the entrance, not the entire park.  Unfortunately, we were wrong and the entire park was closed.  Apparently it had just been purchased and was undergoing renovations.  We'll check it out on our next trip!

We got to Grandma's house and Kimberly was so excited that we had finally arrived!  Karsten remembered playing with Kimberly on our last trip and after a few minutes of sitting quietly, he was ready to play.  On the other hand, Liam was Mr. Shy Guy and kept burying his face in my sholder or arm and didn't want to let go.  It took 20-30 minutes before he warmed up and turned around to wach what Karsten and Kimberly were playing.  However, he still wouldn't talk to Grandma yet, that was going to take some additional time.

Grandma had a tub full of Legos and all three of the kids had a great time building.  Liam built this cool car all by himself.


Kimberly built a nice house then was building all the furnishings for the house.  Very creative!

Jeep tour!

On Tuesday, we headed west of Vail for a 4x4 tour.  It was a beautiful drive from Breckenridge to Wolcott, we were surprised at how much the terrain was different when we got to Wolcott.  The tall trees were replaced by much lower shrubs and plants.

Karsten's request for the guide was to see a moose and a bear. The guide said that he hadn't seen either this year, but he would sure look hard for them.  Shortly after our tour began, we saw a momma deer with two babies. Liam said 'I didn't see them because they were camouflaged." The guide was surprised that Liam was only three and using the word camouflaged!


We were headed up the mountain when the guide stopped and said bears had been in the area because he spotted bear claw marks on the tree. He pulled over and got out with Karsten so he could touch the claw marks.


I was suprised at how high the claw marks went on the tree.  I didn't think the bears climbed trees, but it looks like I was wrong!


We rounded a corner to admire a lake and our guide spotted an abandoned camp fire that was still smoking.  Someone was very irresponsible and could have caused a massive forest fire!


He emptied his cooler and headed over to the lake to get water to pour on the fire.  Scott and the boys followed behind him until the ground was too swampy.  I stopped on a rock we passed and decided to perch there rather than braving it into the swampy area.


Here was our ride for the morning - we used Above and Beyond 4x4 and were thrilled with the service we received.


The pine beetles have really caused a lot of damage in some parts of Colorado.  All of the grey trees you see here are dead, likely killed by the beetle infestation.  This makes things like smoldering camp fires even more dangerous since the forest is full of these super dry trees.


The boys were having a great time - even if we hadn't seen a bear or moose yet.




The road we took  up the mountain was primarily used by logging trucks who were working to clear some areas of the forest that had been impacted by the pine beetle. I can't imagine driving a huge truck and load like this down the mountain road, and our guide said the operation continues to run in the winter until the snow is too high.  So, these trucks are on this road when it's snowpacked - scary!


When we got to the top, we went for a short hike to a scenic overlook.  It was beautiful - an outstanding view!




Our guide told us about a flock of sheep that roams the forest where we were.  Apparently the flock is tended by a few large dogs that are in charge of the sheep.  He saw the camper near where we parked, so he wanted the boys to stay somewhat close to us in case the sheep or dogs were near.  I wouldn't mind seeing the sheep and dogs when we were back in the safety of the jeep!






After some homemade cookies and lemonade, we loaded up to head back down the mountain.




The wild flowers were in bloom everywhere and they were gorgeous.  My favorite was the indian paintbrush which was a beautiful coral color and the top really looked like a paintbrush.  This picture doesn't do it justice.




Unfortunately, we never saw a moose or a bear, but we did see a buck and a coyote.  They both hid in the trees and watched us, but it was still cool to spot them.


It looks like we got back just in time since there was some rain moving in.  We hit the road to go to Vail for lunch.


Yelp is my go-to resource for finding restaurants on vacation.  I found 'The Little Diner' which received rave reviews but it was only open until 2pm.  We rushed around to find it and were the last people they served for the day!  It was tucked into an alley of this cool shopping area, we walked around a bit while waiting for our seats.

After an amazing breakfast, and a slightly heartbroken boy who really wanted one of their giant Dutch baby pancakes (the lady next to us ordered the last one), we cheered him up with the promise of gelato.


Liam is not a sweets guy (can I tell you how I wish I had this quality?).  He picked out a few raisens from his cookie (he didn't want gelato), then pronouced that he was full.


We walked around a bit after lunch and found these cool statues and beautiful flowers.  Seemed like the perfect spot for a group photo.




There were signs throughout the shopping area that cautioned you about moose in the area.  I wish we would have seen a moose meandering through the shopping area - I can't imagine!


We headed back to Breck to do some shopping on Main Street. Karsten had his heart set on a reindeer Christmas ornament and I wanted to check out two tea stores.


We ended the day (our anniversary!) by getting take out hamburgers from a food stand and coming back to our condo for dinner.  It was a great way to end the day and celebrate our anniversary - together as a family!