Colorado: Pikes Peak

One thing we knew for sure we wanted to do in Colorado Springs was drive to the top of Pikes Peak. Nathan has hiked to the top before, but we figured that wasn't really possible this time with Evie and me. :) You can get there by driving this crazy twisty turny very steep road or by taking the Cog Train (which basically goes straight up the mountain - see pic below).
Because we wanted flexibility with Evie and wanted to be able to take our time and stop for pics if we wanted, we decided to drive. Plus, cramming in the train with a baby and many other people didn't sound super appealing. That's the official reason. The real reason is that Nathan was eager to try driving the crazy road. See pics below to see our my view from the passenger seat going up and down the mountain (going up I saw mostly clouds and cliffs ;)).
Apparently there is a race up the mountain every year. The average time for someone like us to make it up is an hour... the fastest time for the racers in their race cars is 10 min!!! I can't even imagine how crazy that is. Our friends watched the race last year and saw a car crash - going off the mountain end over end. Thankfully the guy survived and was ok!

Anyway, the drive really wasn't that bad at 30 mph and we really enjoyed it - so beautiful and so many great views. We stopped by a lake part way up and it was just gorgeous.
Evelyn liked the wild flowers the best (she was allowed to look, but not pick). :)
We did make it up to the top! 14,110 feet!
They make donuts at the top of the mountain that are supposedly the fluffiest ever because of the altitude. They were pretty delicious. You can see that Evie was much more concerned about getting bites of our donuts than smiling for a picture.