We had planned to visit a couple of museums in Denver. This morning we discovered that they were both closed on Mondays. Hence a new idea. We drove to Colorado Springs (and then to Manitou Springs just outside of town) and rode the Pikes Peak Cog Railway all the way to the top of Pikes Peak. That's an elevation of 14115 ft. We were both a little light-headed up there but neither of us really suffered from altitude sickness. Before we drove back to Denver, we charged the car at a supercharger next to a Tex-Mex restaurant named Chuy's. When we got back to Denver, we needed to top off the battery for tomorrow's activities and there is a movie theater next door to the supercharger nearest us, so we charged the car and saw "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." It was a fun if unbelieveable ride.
A cog railroad has tracks with three rails. The middle rail is essentially an unrolled gear (the "rack" of a rack and pinion gear). The cars have multiple electric motors that turn round gears that mate with the cog rail. This allows the train to climb very steep grades. The maximum grade on this train is 28%. Standard locomotives can barely handle a 3% grade. The cog rail is also used to slow the cars down when coming downhill.
Our train consisted of the engine and three passenger cars. The tracks have turn-outs so that trains can be assembled. There are also turn-outs higher up the mountain that allow a downward and an upward train to pass. The interior for the passenger car has two seats on one side of the aisle and three seats on the other side. Every two seats faced one another. We Were sitting on the three side with an Asian couple who turned out to be from Mountain View, California - small world.
At the top of the mountain is a visitor center which has rest rooms, a cafe, and some exhibits. The views from up there are spectacular. Here are a few pictures taken at the top.
The little town of Manitou Springs is really quite charming. We drove through the town on our way back to Colorado Springs. We really liked this building.
Finally, at the end of the day, we had put in 192 miles.
