NELSON'S NOTES #60, Loveland, Colorado, July 22, 2006

SOUTHERN COLORADO

Water is a scarce commodity in the southwest, and nowhere was this more evident than at the Pueblo KOA. The park has no water supply of its own so it was necessary for the staff to truck it in each day. But this didn't affect our stay--there was always enough water. In fact, we liked the park so much that we didn't leave for two days. The weekend we were there it was full of colorful, restored old cars that were in Pueblo for the Rocky Mountain Street Rod Nationals. An outdoor "milkshake social" put on by the owners, followed by a pancake breakfast the next morning, added to the fun.

PIKES PEAK

Pikes Peak was named after a man who never made it to the top. In 1806, the explorer Zebulon Pike started to climb the mountain. Even though the date was November 24, he and his men were dressed only in summer clothes. After a while they feared overexposure, so they turned back.

The day we drove the 19 miles up to Pikes Peak, we felt like turning back, too--not because we were dressed in summer clothes but because dense fog at the higher elevations left little to see and the dirt road had no markings and no guard rails.

Fog enveloping the upper portion of Pikes Peak road made for a scary drive.

When we got to the entrance and paid the $20 fee to the Forest Service ranger, he told us that the temperature at the summit was 28 degrees and the oxygen level was half the amount of oxygen at sea level. He also warned us not to stop at any of the turnouts on the way up, in order to get to the top quickly to beat the storms.

We heeded his advice. For a while the drive was scenic but by the time we were at 11,000 feet and driving past places like "Devil's Playground" and "Bottomless Pit," a thick fog drifted over us. When some approaching cars didn't have their headlights on (which we needed in order to figure out where the road was), the drive became scary. The only good thing was that the road was fairly wide.

After we made it to the summit house, we got out only briefly. At 14,110 feet, we felt sick from the lack of oxygen and knew how mountain climbers must feel.

Because driving conditions at the top were still bad on our way down, the Forest Service was closing the road to vehicles going up. We were stopped, too, but for a different reason. Our brake temperature registered 400 degrees, and the maximum allowed is 300 degrees. So we were told to pull over in the parking lot at Glen Cove to cool the brakes. (A disadvantage of the Saturn is that its low gears do not effectively hold back the car on downgrades. This makes the brakes work harder and heat up on long descents.)

ROYAL GORGE RAILWAY

The next day, June 27, no driving problems confronted us as we sat at our private table in a Royal Gorge Railroad car. The glass-topped dome let in a lot of hot sun but we barely noticed the heat while we ate a gourmet lunch and watched the scenery go by. The food and the service were as good cruise ship fare.

When we got really hot, we went out to the open observation car. The train took us slowly through the mountains, under the Royal Gorge suspension bridge, and past the rushing Arkansas River.

The Royal Gorge suspension bridge spans the narrowest part of the canyon and hangs 1,000 feet above the railroad tracks.

Rafters test their skills on the Arkansas River's white water rapids.

Marianna Nelson