Pike’s Peak 6/26/2025

 Thursday, June 26, 2025

After a late night of talking, we slept in and took it easy this morning. After deciding not to go for a run, Lillia entertained Joy with guitar music.

While we were lazing around, AJ was jumping from an airplane and doing cool things.

Around 11:30, we headed to Manitou Springs to meet AJ for lunch and drive up Pikes Peak. While driving there, we got another glimpse at how crazy we were to climb the Manitou Incline. You can see it cutting through the woods and going straight up in this picture:

The kids had some fun at the penny arcade while we waited for AJ to get there after his “work” day. 

After lunch, we tried to take a picture by the sign and ended up with this gem. 

Tried again, with a higher sign and now you can actually see that we ate at the Manitou Brewing Co. Also, I could open my eyes since we weren’t staring directly at the sun. 

While Kristina and the kids went home for naps/down time (and Kristina packed and cleaned the house!), we drove up the treacherous road to Pikes Peak. Victor did a great job staying focused on the road and not trying to look at the views while driving. At the top, we all noted our elevated heart rates on our watches, but thankfully nobody really experienced altitude sickness. We ate the famous donuts (forgot to take a picture!) and used the bathrooms before heading back down the windy road. 

I was sure this was the marker showing this was the top of the mountain, but upon closer examination, I think it just indicated that the Pikes Peak sign was built in 2017. Shout out to Lillia for posing with it anyway. 

14,115 feet / 4302 meters 

I think this is the highest I’ve ever been!

Still sad it’s not a complete family picture but it’s a picture of our vacationers this year. 

We decided selfies captured the best views. 

Mid-June snowball fight!

This didn’t turn out as cool as I hoped, but here’s a time lapse of the descent. 

The game of the trip had to be played yet again (this is the 3rd time) and the battles are getting more brutal. This before game picture indicates friendly alliances. 

But don’t be fooled. There was not much friendly about this game tonight. This is shortly before Lillia, Victor, and Kristina obliterated Gavin. 

He’s red…

Lillia ended up winning with some surprise attacks securing the same amount of castles as AJ, but double the amount of strongholds. It was a hard fought battle, ending after midnight!