Ah, the Manitou Incline. This does not get you to the top of Pike’s Peak, its only a portion of Pike’s Peak. Its a 13 mile hike to the top of the pike and there was no way we were doing that. The Incline is famous because, I don’t know, its hard, it has 2,768 steps, you gain 2,000 feet in elevation in just a mile and the top of the summit is 8,000 feet. 

We had watched videos, I had read advice on how to conquer it, and everyone who heard we were doing this the second day of being in the thin air of Colorado gave us the equivalent of a snobby, Good Luck. Elena and I were ready to prove everyone wrong. Emma was excited. Brigette was scared. 

We took the shuttle to the parking lot close to the stairs, walked further than we had to to get to the stairs, because its Colorado and THEY DON’T LIKE SIGNS, took our picture, and off we went. The advice that stuck with me was, Go so slow it feels stupid. We went slow. We did get out of breath faster than I think we would’ve in Ohio but we were doing stairs. Every hundred steps there’s a small sign on the stairs marking the hundred so that was really nice. We would generally take a small break every 100 stairs but we each kind of fell into a rhythm of what we had to do to get up.

Everything we saw said there were 2,744 steps and the videos we watched showed how the stairs at the end were very tall, so tall you’re basically climbing them. We also heard about the infamous False Summit that’s ¾ of the way up and people think they’ve made it. At ¾ of the way up I looked up and saw kind where the stairs ended and said to Elena, “Is this the False Summit cause I can clearly see more stairs, I don’t feel like we’re done”. A fellow hiker informed us this was indeed the false summit. We shrugged and continued on. The final sign on the final step counted 2,768 steps and there were no big stairs. After telling my co-worker, who had also done this and confirmed there were big stairs when he did it, we had a revelation that they must’ve made the big steps into smaller stairs and that’s how the step count went up. 

We reached the summit and everyone cheered, then we took our time resting, taking in the views, and talking about how we felt. It took us about an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes to complete. If you don’t want to go down the stairs, which isn’t advised, you can take the Barr Trail down which is fairly easy, and I believe this trail goes all the way to the top of Pike’s Peak. The part we took down was around 3-4 miles. There’s no way I would’ve wanted to go back down the stairs so I’m glad the Barr Trail was there. We didn’t run down the trail but we weren’t meandering either because we had to go to the bathroom. There are nice bathrooms at the bottom of this trail as well so do with that what you will. By the end of this, Brigette felt like she could conquer the world and we were all satisfied. Emma and I agreed climbing the mountain in New Hampshire was harder, mainly because that took all day versus this took us just the morning. If I lived in the area I would probably do it again, but I’m not going to make a special point to go back. 

We did talk about driving up the road to the tippy top of Pike’s Peak, but Emma and Brigette were not keen on the curves with no guardrails and since it was still early May there was likelihood of not being able to reach the top because of snow. We could’ve taken a train up but that’s pretty expensive and again, if there’s snow at the top they don’t go all the way. So we turned our sights on lunch and guys, we picked a great place. Jack Quinn’s Irish Pub and Restaurant. We got cheese curds and they were amazing. They weren’t like Culver’s cheese curds. These were big. And the cheese was soft. AND. They were served with sweet chili sauce. I wish I could get more. The other food was delicious as well. After that we wanted to go to a souvenir shop to see about getting a shirt with the Manitou Incline on it so we hit the town. We didn’t find the shirt we were looking for but found other souvenirs including a bear claw back scratcher for mom. Then we got Ice Cream at the Colorado Springs Creamery, went to Manitou Springs to try out the hot springs water, tried it at two different places and were horrified both times. Arkansas’ hot springs water was fine, but this tasted carbonated. After that adventure we pointed Pena the Roadrunner towards Littleton, CO. We made a pit stop at a Kroger like store, grabbed stuff for supper and breakfast, got to the house, made pasta, and watched Pride and Prejudice. When I brushed out my hair I discovered it was a couple of shades lighter than that morning and had an identity crisis. (It’s pretty much back to normal).

Saturday was a slow morning as we weren’t meeting up with our nun friend until 11:30 so we slept in and stopped at a bougie coffee shop on our way. The male barista asked what my spirit animal was and after a moment of panic I squeaked, Koala. Then I asked him what his was and he said a sheep dog (accurate, I thought, looking at him). 

After picking up Sister, we went to In ‘N’ Out and the general consensus was, the burgers weren’t super greasy and you didn’t feel gross after eating it. Plus, the fries were very fresh. 

Then onward to the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine. The road up to the shrine is up what we Ohio folks would call a mountain but are actually the foothills, and quite curvy. I loved it. There were lots of steps to get to the top of a hill to view…I’mma be honest, I’m not really sure what we viewed there aside from a heart Mother Cabrini made out of stones to resemble the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

Back down the stairs was a small chapel and a place where you could get some spring water. The story of the spring water goes, Mother Cabrini was sold the land at a very low price because it didn’t have any water. One day she went out with folks, took her cane, thrust it into the ground and said, there’s water here. And there was. And you can get the water! Of course we drank it. After that it was gift shop time! After we left I expressed disappointment the old orphanage/convent wasn’t there and Emma told me there was a museum. I was in disbelief. There was a museum and I didn’t know and we didn’t go. After we dropped off our nun friend we went out to eat at another Irish Pub, hey, they treat you well, and got cheesecake to celebrate my birthday.

The next morning was Sunday and we went to Mass, stopped at a car wash to give the car a quick sweep and wash, then headed back to the airport, dropped off the car without incident, then headed for security. I got through quickly but Emma, right behind me, got pulled over for a random check and they swabbed her hands for gunpowder residue. Emma completed the terrorist check, was cleared, then we searched for Elena and Brigette. They still hadn’t made it through security but finally they got through. I don’t know what took them so long. We grabbed some food and ate it sitting on the airport floor. The flight home was uneventful and on time.

All in all I enjoyed Colorado and I would go back. I really want to see what Colorado is like in the rural area with the mountains.