The Air Force Academy and Pike's Peak

I left this morning and rode down I-25 to Colorado Springs and the US Air Force Academy.  The three of us had been there when Patrick was about 5 years old and I've always thought it is very impressive.  They have a very nice Visitor's Center and from there you can walk over to the Main Campus.  The Academy, if I'm not mistaken, opened in 1958, but surprisingly enough, the architecture of the buildings and the neatness and cleanliness of everything would make it hard to believe that the facility has been there almost 60 years.

This is a view of the campus from the entry road:

The iconic building on the campus, of course, is the Cadet Chapel:

The campus itself is also very pretty:

After leaving the Academy, I headed down I-25 to Manitou Springs and the Garden of the Gods.  This is a relatively small area with some unique rock formations in red sandstone.  Unfortunately, it was bumper-to-bumper with touristas and I couldn't even stop to get a picture.  So, I headed on west on US24 to the Pike's Peak Auto Road and headed on up to the top of Pike's Peak.  It took about 30 minutes of creeping along (uphill) one car length at a time to get through to where you forked over your $$ for use of their road, and the trip up the mountain was only as fast as the slowest car way up in front of you, but it was a spectacular view all along the road.  Here is Pike's Peak from Colorado Springs, about 30 miles away:

Here's a view from about a mile up the road.  What you see at the bottom of the valley is US24, the road that the Pike's Peak road connects with:

Here's a picture of the top of Pike's Peak from a spot a couple miles further up the road:

And here are a couple views from the top:

And just to prove that I was at the top:

Tomorrow, it's west of Denver to Granby and a trip on Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park, north of Boulder.

Miles today: 233
Total:  2,662