Cog Train Up to Pikes Peak (Evans, Woodland Park: to buy, shoppers, cabins)

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by westernhalf

Just read your question, and haven't gone through all the other posts, so maybe this has been answered. Yes, you can drive up Pikes Peak, and there aren't rails (I think that's crazy). The only accidents I've heard of are racers (maybe 1 or 2?) going off the mountain during the Pikes Peak Hill Climb--an annual race to the top of Pikes Peak (also an insane race, if you ask me) There have also been some sad instances of attempted suicides. I don't ever plan to be in a car to the top of PP again--too scary for me, but thousands of people do it. The logical reason I would advise against going up in your car is that coming down is VERY hard on brakes. If you must go in a car, maybe you could rent one.

The race is a time trial. There are no cars passing each other.

If you think the Pikes Peak road is scary, I can just picture you on a back road in the mountains.

Driving down is not at all hard on brakes because cars all have a device called a transmission. There is no law against down shifting.

[janelle144]

Don't they check cars half way up to see about the brakes? I guess they only put information on who is killed up there in the person's state. Not something to tell when you want the tourists. People do not learn how to drive mountains, etc. and then get into trouble once there. After all, there is a lot of dangerous sports like skiing and mountain climbing going on there.

[janetjanetbobanet]

One thing I would say about taking small children up to Pikes Peak. I have known two people who became very ill at the top when their parents took them up when they were very young. One of them remembers vividly how sick she got and refuses to go up there at all now. The other doesn't remember, but she totally freaked her parents out by passing out from the low oxygen level, and they had to start back down as quickly as they could. A boy scout group from Kansas that I worked with took a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds up to Pikes Peak the first day they got here on their way to camp, and most of those kids had altitude sickness for a few days at camp because they did not have time to acclimate and had gone up too fast, then back down, then back up to the 8,000 plus feet altitude at camp. So kids can be quite affected, depending. If you are going to take small children up there, give them a few days doing things at a little lower altitude first and schedule it toward the end of your trip. And if they are asthmatic or have sensitivity to altitude, or other health issues, don't take them at all. I met a guy who had worked up there as a paramedic who said he had to do CPR on an infant who had stopped breathing and the parents didn't realize it because they had the baby in a carrier covered with a blanket - they just thought the child had gone to sleep. So be careful with your kids and watch them closely, especially infants.

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by janelle144

Don't they check cars half way up to see about the brakes? I guess they only put information on who is killed up there in the person's state. Not something to tell when you want the tourists. People do not learn how to drive mountains, etc. and then get into trouble once there. After all, there is a lot of dangerous sports like skiing and mountain climbing going on there.

Originally Posted by janetjanetbobanet

One thing I would say about taking small children up to Pikes Peak. I have known two people who became very ill at the top when their parents took them up when they were very young. One of them remembers vividly how sick she got and refuses to go up there at all now. The other doesn't remember, but she totally freaked her parents out by passing out from the low oxygen level, and they had to start back down as quickly as they could. A boy scout group from Kansas that I worked with took a bunch of 10 and 11 year olds up to Pikes Peak the first day they got here on their way to camp, and most of those kids had altitude sickness for a few days at camp because they did not have time to acclimate and had gone up too fast, then back down, then back up to the 8,000 plus feet altitude at camp. So kids can be quite affected, depending. If you are going to take small children up there, give them a few days doing things at a little lower altitude first and schedule it toward the end of your trip. And if they are asthmatic or have sensitivity to altitude, or other health issues, don't take them at all. I met a guy who had worked up there as a paramedic who said he had to do CPR on an infant who had stopped breathing and the parents didn't realize it because they had the baby in a carrier covered with a blanket - they just thought the child had gone to sleep. So be careful with your kids and watch them closely, especially infants.

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

[janelle144]

I don't mind admitting I am a coward in some things. I don't hang off a mountain unless I can't help it. LOL

[otowi]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

How interesting, I just finished reading a book called Interred with their Bones in which this was a key quote. Book was pretty good, but not great, fyi.

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by otowi

How interesting, I just finished reading a book called Interred with their Bones in which this was a key quote. Book was pretty good, but not great, fyi.

I just looked at the reviews on amazon. The most favored critical review stated that it was better than Dan Brown "but what isn't". I tossed Brown in the dustbin when he was being oh so intellectual in explaining a Latin phrase and actually showed that he was oh so ignorant.

To relate this to Pikes Peak, I might suggest a mystery train going up on Midsummer night, viewing the play held on the summit, then coming down to find out who killed the man in the black hat. Perhaps dinner could be served before the entertainment on the summit, something heavy to be sure.

I hope I don't need to mention the title of the play.

[faithandcharity]

we're going on the Cog railway the first week of Aug. They have a discount at 8 AM and a bigger one at 5:20PM. Is there a good time to go up that's not so crowded and the views are going to be visable. I'm wondering if the later one will be too dark by the time we come down or if it will be better since it will be around sunset.

[Happy in Wyoming]

Go on the later train. A Colorado sunset is so beautiful that it strains belief.

[faithandcharity]

Sunset is about 8:05. If I take the 5:20 I'll be at the top about 7 and leave about 7:30 and be back at the bottom about 9. Am I going to see the sunset and is the ride down going to be too dark to see anything?