…and by “climbed”, I mean “drove up comfortably in our car”.

This morning we checked out of our hotel near Boulder, CO—a place where parking lot parties never cease, where snoring neighbors literally rattle walls, and where breakfast thieves and the cops who police them play a daily game of cat-and-mouse. We said our goodbyes and got back on the road, bound for Aspen, CO.

On the way, we’d decided that we were going to stop at Pikes Peak and take the cog railway up to the summit. But since we waited until today to buy the railway tickets, we found that they were sold out. No worries though—driving ourselves to the peak sounded like fun, too.

The 19-mile drive to the top of Pikes Peak took nearly an hour at the 20-25 MPH speed limit (which everyone seemed more than happy to obey, given the steep drop-offs and mostly absent guardrails). The views were outstanding, and the smell of melting brakes from the cars coming down really added to the experience! The wind at the summit was ridiculous enough to knock people off balance, so we hung out just look enough to look around and snap a few photos (see below) before heading back down.

From Pikes Peak, we went west through Colorado on route 24 toward Aspen. This was probably one of the most scenic sections of road on our trip thus far—central Colorado is quite picturesque! It was evening by the time we arrived at our destination (we’re staying about 15 minutes west of Aspen in a room that I booked with Starwood points), so we grabbed some food and settled in for the night.

Tomorrow will be an early morning (hopefully!) so we can get out and hike around the Maroon Bells.

Photos from the day at Pikes Peak:

There is a $12 per person fee to drive to the summit. Seems kinda steep (har har)!

From roughly halfway up the mountain, the road switchbacks already appear to go on forever.

Lori at the 14,115 ft summit of Pikes Peak.

Lori trying to not get blown off the top of the mountain while snapping a photo. It was absurdly windy at the summit and we saw at least a dozen people lose their hats.