Pikes Peak!

Yesterday Corrine and I climbed to the summit of Pikes Peak. We decided to try hiking the back side of the Peak, instead of the more heavily traveled front side. Neither of us had done this one. The hike is 15 miles - up and back. Started at the Crags campground in Divide, hiking steadily uphill for a couple of miles through beautiful forests, with gorgeous views.



Here is Corrine checking the time as we head out.







Through the woods...timberline still a ways off. This is a peak not far from Pike's.






Just starting to reach timberline.







The weather was perfect...though a bit hazy, so the views were not as good as they could have been. At about 12,500 elevation seeing patches of snow.




The cairns (rock piles) became our best friends. They marked the path. Once we got to the really rocky part, there wasn't exactly a trail, but these marked the best route.




From here the Pikes Peak highway is visible. We hiked along the left side and up the rocks. Our destination is straight up from the curve in the highway. Still a couple of hours to go.





Cute marmot at about 13,500 elevation.

Still have a rough part of the hike to do...lots of rock climbing. The summit house is just visible on the Peak. Almost there - another hour.

We made it! My first 14er...amazing!

We had intended to hike all the way down, but looming black clouds on the Peak convinced us to hitch a ride back down to Devil's Playground (closer to timberline) to avoid being on the rocks and out in the open when the lightening started. Some nice people from Louisiana dropped us off on their way down. We hiked the rest of the way to the trailhead....total 13 miles. Would have been 15 if we had not taken the ride. Of course, I might not be writing this if we had not taken the ride! A good challenging hike - Corrine tells me the front trail (Barr) is a lot easier...we'll see!