In Manitou Springs, a Peek at Pikes Peak and More
8/20/2008
In Manitou Springs, a Peek at Pikes Peak and More
A morning ride on the cog railway and an afternoon of shopping
By Helen Anders
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, August 17, 2008
MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. — Pikes Peak — all 14,110 feet of it — looms over this cute little town just west of Colorado Springs. Can't ignore it. May as well go up it.
I'm not a mountain-climber, though. I could drive up — a 19-mile drive that takes about two hours. But I'd be too busy trying not to drive off the edge to really see much. Besides, two hours of driving around and around and around might leave me feeling a little peaked.
So I decide to leave the driving to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, so called because a cog wheel gear holds the train to the tracks and lets it climb steep grades without tumbling off the mountain.
This railway was built just for us tourists, and it's been taking folks up the mountain since 1891. Generations of bighorn sheep have watched with boredom.
As we prepare for the ride, we're told we might see some of these bighorn sheep or maybe a yellow-bellied marmot. Then again, we're told, we might not.
I'm well aware of this, never having seen more than a ground squirrel on other Colorado scenic train trips. But we're guaranteed to get a gander at some magnificent mountain scenery, and that'll do fine.
Off we roll at about 9 mph, with wonderfully cool air pouring in my half-open window. We roll past pines that are close enough to poke into the train from time to time and big granite boulders.
This isn't a train in the sense that it's a bunch of cars hooked together. Two cars move independently up the mountain. It takes a little more than an hour to reach the top.
As we chug, our conductor points out areas of interest, and at first they seem always to be on the other side of the train. Eventually, we start getting some good views of rocks, streams and small waterfalls on our side.
Cameras come out as we reach sweeping vistas of canyons, lakes, forests of evergreens and aspens, and many, many folds of distant mountains. On a clear day (and it is one), we're told you can see four states from the summit.
Once we pass the tree line, the temperature, which was been about 80 back in Manitou Springs, plummets into the 40s, so I put on the sweatshirt I brought along. Outside the train, the landscape is a granite rockpile. And what's that scampering around? Why, it's a marmot.
At this moment, our train stops briefly so the engineer can solve a little problem, and the marmot uses the occasion to show us his yellow belly. About a minute later, we're chugging again.
When we reach the top, we're warned that the train's going to come back down at exactly 10 a.m. and if we miss it, we'll be left up there, like, forever. I don't believe it, but I still make a mental note.
The summit is, as far as I'm concerned, the top of the world. I'm sure I can see Oklahoma. This is the view that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful" in 1893.
There's a big snack shop and a store with restrooms. I'm amazed at the number of people who spend most of our time at the top inside the store. It's a store. We're on Pike's Peak, for gosh sake.
After about 50 minutes of breathless picture-taking — breathless because it's a little hard to inhale at this altitude — we all get back on the train. Within minutes, we actually do see bighorn sheep walking across a distant ridge. They wind up looking like bighorn ants in my picture.
At the bottom of the mountain, I quickly down a big bottle of water, gulp some air and head out to explore the village of Manitou Springs, which is packed with tourists. I avoid about half of them — the family half — by lunching at the Ancient Mariner Tavern, which serves an excellent char-broiled burger, Guinness-battered onion rings and glass of Colorado-brewed Easy Street beer.
Then I browse some of Manitou's art galleries (Business of Art Center, which showcases various artists and offers some work for sale, is a favorite) as well as shops offering cowboy hats, jewelry, antiques and American Indian art. There's also an old-fashioned arcade filled with children and adults playing old games such as pinball and Pac-Man. Next door at Patsy's Popcorn, I can't resist buying a bag of caramel corn.
I rejoin my husband who's resting at our hotel, the Cliff House, a delightful Victorian hotel with a big veranda on which we enjoyed a glass of wine. Our queen room is adorable, comfy and air-conditioned — not a given in Colorado, where most of the year you're more likely to need heat. In fact, our bathroom has a heated toilet seat.
The only negative about this hotel is the check-out surprise: an $18 "service charge" I'm told will be given to the bellmen, car valets, housekeepers and breakfast servers.
This charge wasn't revealed when I booked my room, though it apparently was announced in a fat paragraph of fine print on a page I signed when I checked in. I can't read fine print, so I guess it's my fault I've been going around tipping everybody redundantly.
Cliff House has a highly rated restaurant, and in retrospect, we should've booked reservations there. But it's an expensive place, so instead we head to another old Victorian manse of a restaurant. The ambience is excellent, but I begin to worry when our wine sits cooling, unopened, next to our table for more than 10 minutes. The server finally confesses she left her corkscrew at home. I offer to lend her the travel corkscrew I keep in my purse, but she purloins one from a fellow server, and we begin our evening.
Why am I not naming this establishment? Because my overcooked trout and my husband's disaster of a paella convince me it must've been the chef's night off. Let's just be nice and forget it happened.
Manitou Springs is a good base for other nearby natural attractions beyond Pikes Peak, and we've visited these in the past. Garden of the Gods, a free park filled with huge red rocks, is my favorite. Other natural attractions include cliff dwellings and a cavern, Cave of the Winds.
handers@statesman.com; 912-2590
If you go ...
Manitou Springs is on the southern edge of Colorado Springs. For more information, visit www.manitousprings.org or call a travel agent.
Pikes Peak Cog Railway, 515 Ruxton Ave., 719-685-5401, operates year-round. Reserve a seat in advance, and be at the station half an hour early to find a parking place and pick up tickets. Admission now through Dec. 31: Adults $30.50; children $17.
Cliff House, 306 Cañon Ave., Manitou Springs, 888-212-7000, www.thecliffhouse.com. Rooms start at $159 plus $9 per person per day service fee.
Ancient Mariner Tavern, 962 Manitou Ave, 719-685-5503.
Business of Art Center, 513 Manitou Ave., 719-685-1861.
Patsy's Popcorn; 930 Manitou Ave., 719-685-0250.
Garden of the Gods, 1805 N. 30th St. (at Gateway Road), Colorado Springs, 719-634-6666, www.gardenofgods.com. Free.
Cave of the Winds. Cave of the Winds Road, Manitou Springs, 719-685-5444, Admission: $20 adult; $10.50 child at www.caveofthewinds.com.