Today we visited Pikes Peak. We had attempted to visit the summit in 2017 with the kids, but learned at the entrance that you shouldn’t take an infant past 10,000′ so we stopped at the Halfway Picnic Grounds at 9,930′ on that trip. The only issue today was the construction of the new Pikes Peak Summit Complex . They are building a brand new Visitor Center at the summit along with replacing the Cog Railway leading to the summit. I assume they will also tear down the current Visitor Center when the new one opens. Due to this construction, there is no place to park at the summit so you have to board a shuttle at either the 13 mile or 16 mile marks. We drove up to the 16 mile mark at which point my navigator determined that she’d reached her yearly limit of driving extremely narrow high elevation roads with no shoulders. I boarded the shuttle and continued to the top. I will have to admit that when I exited the shuttle I had to stop and and suck in some oxygen because I got a little dizzy at first. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to visit the summit for the first time since 1976 (I think that was the year). While I was up there, two military fighters flew by. This was the first time I’ve ever experienced seeing an airplane in flight that was basically at the same elevation I was at. It was pretty cool. I fired off a number of shots with my camera, but unfortunately I didn’t have a long lens on it at the time, so the planes are pretty small. On the way back down the mountain we relived our 2017 memories by picnicking again at the Halfway Picnic Grounds.
Pikes Peak Summit 
Pikes Peak Summit 
Cripple Creek Gold Mine 
Military Fighter (Zoom In) 
Beth at 16 Mile Lot (12,780′)