Unfortunately it took a lot longer to cross Monarch Pass than we thought it would so we ended up spending the night in a RV park just off the highway which had two levels for camping. We took a site right alongside a rapid creek. The park had mostly tents occupied by groups who were going over the rapids in kayaks.
The Cog Railroad is located up a steep narrow street right in the town of Manitou Springs. We arrived about 10:20 a.m. and I got a stand by ticket for the 10:40 a.m. train. When it was filled, I got a seat, Row 1/Seat C, on the aisle next to the driver, Howard,for the noon train. This was the front row facing forward going up and backward going down facing the rear. The temperture at the depot was 90 degrees, at the top it was 48 degrees and windy.
Going up and returning, we saw many yellow bellied whistling marmots that just sat along side the tracks and watched us go by. Then we saw a big horned ram way up on the ridgeline. The guide told us the history of the train (built in 1891) and how it was from viewing the mountain reached by wagon road that a school teacher wrote the poem "America, the Beautiful". When asked, she told us that the trains have three types of brakes: cog, air, and transmission. If they failed, there are two big springs at the bottom named Manitou and Colorado to catch us! As we left the summit for the return to the depot, it started snowing. Hope my pictures turn out.
Later we saw on the news that a teenager rolled his car off the top of the mountain. It took several hours to get him off the side of the mountain.
This part of Colorado is really flat on both sides of U.S. 50. We couldn't see any mountains east of Pueblo.
We stopped for the night in Lamar and had dinner in BJ's Drive-In. At the inside tables were back-lighted menus with a phone handset which you picked up and pushed the black button to place your order then the carhop brought it to us.
