Day 37. Cascade (Colorado Springs), Colorado.
It was an early start today to ensure that we could climb the Pike's Peak Highway before the crowds. The plan worked and we had an unencumbered run to the summit. 19 miles and 8000' of climbing later we had completed the task. In some cases there were drop offs of thousands of feet at the side of the road with no crash barriers. The trick seemed to be not to focus on the view to the side! At over 14000' the altitude did start to affect us and that combined with the cold (single digits in Celsius and 40 in Fahrenheit) meant we didn't stay long at the Visitor's Centre.

We then headed into Manitou Springs for lunch before heading to the Garden of the Gods. An amazing rock formation that is heavily inhabited by rattlesnakes. Unfortunately we didn't see any but we did have a nice long walk.

The views have been a bit hazy since we arrived, due to smoke from the forest fires in California and Oregon. Hard to believe that they drift that far!