I happen to visit Denver in Colorado in the summer to visit my friends down there…As always, I visited some local attractions, one of which was Pikes Peak. It is around 10 miles from Colorado Springs. The specialty of the place is it is the world’s highest-cog railroad.
If you do not know what a cog railway is, here is how the track looks. It has a saw kind of track, gives extra grip and it prevents the train to avoid slipping. It goes very very slow though. All these are from my camera, compressed for better loading of page !
Here is the train on the real tracks…close view and long shot view…. It has like 3 to 4 compartments. There are two trains. One goes up and goes down. There is a track changing station kind of setup in middle.
Below are some of the pictures taken during our cog rail ride:
On the way we pass through a variety of points. One of them is called windy point situated at an elevation of 12,129 feet. Below is the board that indicates the same elevation.
It was an awesome panoramic view of the lakes and mountains…I wish I was a better poet to describe it 😉 All I can show you are these photographs
As you go up the peak, the air pressure decreases, Oxygen content decreases…it is very hard to breath. It is not recommended if you have any health problems. Especially respiratory related or pregnancy too.
Honestly, I felt a little headache in 20 min because of the lack of oxygen. The rail will only stay for 25-30 min on the peak due to these health hazards. It is the world’s highest cog railway and it is in the Rocky Mountains ! The topmost peak point that the train takes you is at 14,110 feet as show in below image.
As everywhere, they have souvenirs on top. The view from top of the mountain is breathtaking. It is quite windy and hard to stand stable due to the wind. I went during the hot summer and it was icy and very cold. So, you can imagine how bad it gets during winter. Due to the altitude, there is always ice and snow on the top and winds are ridiculous…..
If you visit Colorado, Pikes Peak is definitely worth visiting, outstanding view and a fun experience! You can say I have been on the Highest Cog Railway !
What has been your experience visiting Pikes Peak? Share your experience in comments below
