| Pikes Peak summit
walk Pikes Peak |
| Estimated net time | A few minutes. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water, but good selection from the summit shop. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage all around the summit (July 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at the different car parks around the summit. | ||
| Start height | 4295 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 10 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 0.5 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map | |||
| Route photo |
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From the junction where roads I-25 and 24 intersect in southern Colorado Springs drive approximately 15.5 km (9.7 mi) north-west on road 24, and turn left where signed for Pikes Peak Mountain. This is a toll road and the fee depends on the number of persons in the car (per 2013 fee is USD 40 for a family of maximum five).
Drive the 31 km (19 mi) to the summit and find parking in the summit area. Walk across to the summit, which you find close to the summit buildings.
We had flown from Boston to Denver earlier this Thursday, and then driven south to Colorado Springs. Despite miserable weather, with rain and mist, we decided to drive up to Pikes Peak. One of the reasons was that we wanted to check how we would react on the high altitude with minimal acclimatisation. We didn't get quite minimal acclimatisation since we had to stop for approximately 20 minutes because the road was closed due to a Range Rover advert being filmed.
At the summit we had about 30 metres visibility, but I also brutally found out what high altitude does to your body; while the boys were running around without any visible problems I was hardly able to walk due to dizziness and headache. And while I staggered towards the shops and the highest point I was having negative thoughts about hiking to 4000m-tops later in the week.
After the summit stroll and a visit to the summit shop we drove back down, including a 15 minutes stop at Glen Cove after a brake temperature check indicated we needed to cool down the brakes a little. Then down to our hotel outside Colorado Springs.