Pikes Peak and Colorado Springs to Denver

Fancy a run up a 14000 ft hill while the Mrs is in doing the grocery shopping ?  We should be back in an hour.  Pikes Peak, perhaps one of the most famous Hill Climbs in the world, is just down the road from the nearest shopping centre near Colorado Springs !! And I was here to drive up it !


So close to town, yet one of the most spectacular drives I have ever made. It is now tarmac all the way to the top, and the new section is as smooth as a baby's bottom !  I have wanted to run the car up this hill for many years, so this was a very special day. I didn't get to the Ranger station at the bottom until about noon, and it was a perfect day - 20 deg C and clear blue skies. "Lucky you didn't get here any earlier" said Barb the Ranger as she took my $10 toll money. "We have only just opened the road due to high winds at the summit".  My luck with the weather continues !!! 
After Barb made me promise to stop on the way back so she could get a photo with my car, I was free to go !  Not much I can say but "Wow" yet again.  The speed limit varies between 15 and 25 mph, but I just couldn't hold Elsie back - We just enjoyed the hill at "moderate speed".  Even the Ranger parked beside the road 2/3rds of the way up waved at me as I passed (at least, I think it was a friendly wave !!). The views started as spectacular and just got better.  The temperature dropped steadily until by the time we reached the top it was minus 0.4 deg C and a strong, biting wind,  while Elsie ran richer and richer until by the top she was burbling away and wouldn't idle at all.  But she still had enough power to give an Imprezza a good run despite his turbo !! (That is him in the mirror !)

At the top, met the Imprezza guys, Ram and Karthic from Boston doing a 3 week tour of the US over to San Francisco. Great guys and we posed for a photo with the cars in front of the top of the hill marker.  But was so bitterly cold we could hardly stand still long enough to chat ! 

Hope you have a good time on the rest of your trip, guys. Then it was down the same way we came up, but this time the views were even more impressive, and that drop off the sides is STEEP !!  It would have been great to see the Ari Vatanen's of this world negotiating the gravel section at speed !

Photos are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/PikesPeak?authkey=Gv1sRgCKaiyOTMppLPlQE#

At the bottom, now back to about 20 deg C, I stopped and Barb the Ranger came out for her photo and a chat, and then I took off (past the North Pole !!), to head towards Denver and the Lotus Owners Club of Colorado monthly meeting which I was to attend.
I took a back roads route instead of the freeway, at the suggestion of someone from LOCO - Interesting road, but within half an hour I had taken a wrong turning and was on a dirt road ! 

I guess I need to get used to them for later, so we stuck with it and eventually made it through to Denver no problem.  Having found the restaurant for the meeting, chatted with everyone as they arrived and asked questions about the car until we moved inside for a beer and a meal. I put some of the slides of my preparation for my trip and of my trip so far up on a screen, and talked about how the trip had come about, and some of the history of the Series 1 Elise because many of the members only knew what they had read, and had never seen one before. A great meeting, a lot of very friendly Lotus people, and an excellent evening. To Club President Steve, to all the members, and especially to Doug who I had been chatting to for some time about coming to Colorado and the LOCO meeting, and who very kindly gave me a most welcome bed for the night, Thank you.  The global Lotus spirit is alive and well.

Some more photos here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/ColoradoSpringsToDenver?authkey=Gv1sRgCLvB5JGgxpqHqwE#