A few scenic pictures.
The mining treasures.
For Father’s Day this year Ken decided that he wanted to drive up to the summit of Pikes Peak Mountain. At the summit of the mountain you are at 14,110 above sea level! The drive is only about 18 miles, but it took about an hour up and more coming down! It was beautiful at the top, but the air is very thin and it didn’t feel the greatest. We didn't stay at the top long and I swear on the way down I passed out from a low oxygen level. When I came too, we were at a much better altitude and felt back to normal. At a check point on the way down a Fish and Game guy checks the temperature of your brakes. If they are over 300° you have to pull over and allow them to cool down since you are about to start the steepest decent. (They have “strategically” placed a gift shop at this very location!) Of course, the Fish and Game guy zaps our brakes and they are a smoldering 318 degrees! So while we sat with the hood up to help the cooling process the girls noticed a mining stream set up outside the gift shop. Apparently you can buy a bad of dirt of $10 in the gift shop but the girls just “re-panned” the left over dirt and found lots of treasures. After watching the girls pull out treasure after treasure I went and tried my hand at it!
You will notice in the pictures that the girls are dressed in warm clothes and jackets. When we started out to the top the temperature was 87° by the time we got to the top the temperature had dropped to 47°!
