Meandering up Pikes Peak

Getting up Pikes was actually a 2018 goal for us that we didn’t get to for various reasons. So 2019 needed to be the year. We got up super early to drive to Manitou Springs, starting point of the traditional East Slopes route. Even at 5am-ish, all the trailhead parking spots were already full. Various people were driving around town kind of like us, wondering what parking alternatives existed and doing the math to see how much longer the already-long hike would become.

We ended up driving around the mountain to the base of the Northwest Slopes route instead. I hadn’t done this one before, and it’s a significantly shorter round trip. And when we arrived there at dawn-ish, there were still a few spots left at the trailhead!

A few interesting encounters:

• A guy flying a drone near treeline. At first we just heard a strange buzzing, and only later realized what it was. No drones in National Forests people!
• Beautiful terrain – NW Slopes feels more topographically varied than East Slopes.
• Devil’s Playground – See photo, yikes.
• Once we got up near the top, we ran into a ton of people who had driven up to the top. Tons of high altitude parking.
• The actual summit was literally under construction. Maybe a parking garage? As a result, there wasn’t any west-facing view off the summit. But the east- and north-facing views were still lovely.
• We rode the bus down ~1k feet from the summit to the last parking lot where we could still catch the trail back to our car. That was a first on a 14er hike!

Strava!