Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs

Tried to sleep in this morning as a nagging "altitude" headache kept me awake most of the night. Billy washed the truck while I took Maggie for a long walk, and then we left at about 10:00 am for the excursion to Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak is called "America's Mountain because it's the mountain that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write the poem which later became the anthem, "America the Beautiful." We drove the truck the 19 mile climb up to the peak to the 14,115 foot summit. The views climbing up and down were awesome, and we even saw some snow on the way up the mountain. I saw lots of plant life that I could not identify. I did finally figure out what an Aspen tree looks like and the Columbine flower was beautiful. We took lots of pictures. At the summit we had to wrap Maggie up in a blanket and put on our winter coats. On the way down it started sleeting and the sleet was piling up slightly by the side of the road, which was dirt part of the way. (See second sentence in post) It took us about 6 hours to make the trip. Both of us developed altitude headaches on the way down the mountain, so we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant for a quick dinner and we are ready to call it a night 4:45pm (Mountain Time).