Pikes Peak Cog Railway, closing, rebuilding, reopening. (complex, scenes)

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

My grandparents brought me on a trip here in 1960, and we took the then available bus up because the cog railway was too expensive.

It must have been an awfully short bus. During the fifties the Cog and Grayline offered what they called a diverse trip, Cog one way and car the other way. The cost was about the same You may be confusing Pikes Peak with Mt. Evans. There were buses on the latter road, but the turns on the Pikes Peak road are too tight.

Originally Posted by Phil P

$58 isn't bad if you can hang out for a long time up there. 40 minutes seems pretty short, I'd want longer than that to look around. It's cool how there's now like a whole village up there now. Some people might not like the disturbance but every other mountain is basically as is from nature, so it's cool to have one developed.

It's windy and wintry in the middle of summer. Forty minutes is adequate time for most folks.

Originally Posted by Phil P

Crags is definitely one you should do if you're in the area, Pikes Peak is just a different looking mountain from other ones in other ranges, so moundy and pink and all alone.

My late wife and I once took the Cog to the summit, then walked down on the Barr Trail. It was all downhill, but we were exhausted when we reached our car. Many years ago people went by horse or donkey as well: it was a two day trip. My mother did this in the late twenties.

[COcheesehead]

My wife and I took the cog up about 7 years ago. I couldn’t tell you what it cost, but I can sure tell you about the experience.

[dr.frog]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

My late wife and I once took the Cog to the summit, then walked down on the Barr Trail. It was all downhill, but we were exhausted when we reached our car.

I made a similar mistake when I first moved to Salt Lake City for grad school in the 1980s -- took the aerial tram at Snowbird up to the top and hiked down. As a native flatlander I didn't realize that sustained downhill walking puts so much stress on your knees and muscles you don't normally use, even if it seems a lot easier than an equivalently-long uphill grunt. I could hardly walk at all for a couple days afterwards. After that experience, I never even considered trying a downhill-only hike on Pikes Peak. Plenty of other shorter hikes with a mix of up and down that are kinder to my aging body and ever-wonkier knee.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

It must have been an awfully short bus. During the fifties the Cog and Grayline offered what they called a diverse trip, Cog one way and car the other way. The cost was about the same You may be confusing Pikes Peak with Mt. Evans. There were buses on the latter road, but the turns on the Pikes Peak road are too tight.

...

The attachment says: At Glen Cove on Pikes Peak. August 15, 1960. I have another one from I believe 1952.

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by phetaroi

The attachment says: At Glen Cove on Pikes Peak. August 15, 1960. I have another one from I believe 1952.

And in case you'll say I faked the photo or that the bus never went to the top:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj7_x8FVwKc

[Happy in Wyoming]

Gray Line apparently still uses very short buses. They charge 50% more than the Cog!

https://www.pikes-peak.com/attractio...-by-gray-line/

[phetaroi]

Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming

Gray Line apparently still uses very short buses. They charge 50% more than the Cog!

https://www.pikes-peak.com/attractio...-by-gray-line/

Oh, that's impossible. "the turns on the Pikes Peak road are too tight".

[wilberry]

phetaroi love the video, very cool

[Vision67]

The beloved high-altitude doughnuts made at the top of Pikes Peak are getting a reboot

And the visitor center is, too

https://theknow.denverpost.com/2021/...ghnuts/258450/

"The recipe for the doughnuts made at the top of Pikes Peak is so important, so secret, so proprietary that it’s kept in a safe. Employees who work anywhere near the doughnuts must sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure the recipe doesn’t leave the property.

This spring, these beloved — and slightly mysterious — high-altitude treats are getting a reboot as part of a massive construction and renovation project at the mountain’s 14,115-foot summit.

When the new, 38,000-square-foot Pikes Peak Summit Complex opens (hopefully at the end of May), it will do so with a brand new, eco-friendly doughnut machine. But don’t worry. Though the doughnuts are getting a machinery upgrade, the new equipment shouldn’t affect their flavor or texture.

“We’ll find out,” said Jack Glavan, manager of Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, a self-supporting enterprise of the city of Colorado Springs. “We hope not.”"

[Vision67]

PHOTOS: Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak COG Railway travels to summit of Pikes Peak

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/05/1...k-cog-railway/

It's open.

"The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak COG Railway train traveled to the summit of Pikes Peak on May 16, 2021 in Manitou Springs. It marked the first day since October 2017 that the almost 130-year-old train is making its way again to the summit of Pike Peak. The railway had an extensive restoration project that included new trains, new track and a new snowblower that can cut through snow drifts up to 14 feet tall so the trains can make it to the summit.

The railway will be opened for four days from May 20-23 and again on May 27 when it reopens to the public seven days a week. The train will have five departures a day. The ride takes just over three hours to complete the 9 mile ascent and 9 mile descent of Pikes Peak. It is the world’s highest COG railway train going up 7,600 feet of vertical gain to the 14,115-foot summit. It has an average grade of 12% but sometimes gets as steep as 24%. The train ride takes riders through Pikes Peak’s famous pink granite in the Pike National Forest. The railway will celebrate its 130th anniversary at the end of June."