Pike's Peak 2/2

As promised here are the final images from the Pike's Peak summit demonstrating the breathtaking views from 14,115 ft above sea level. The first image shows the winding, 13 mile, hiking trail that goes up the mountain. If I ever get back to Colorado Springs, the climb up Pike's Peak is a priority. The second image shows the Western view of Pike's Peak (the side opposite of Colorado Springs). Finally, the other side, the Colorado Springs (East) side of Pike's Peak is shown in the last image. If you strain your eyes you can even see the Garden of the Gods' red rocks in the upper left hand area of the image!

The Barr Trail


West Side of Pike's Peak


Colorado Springs (East) Side of Pike's Peak

Pike's Peak Panorama

This is very much a trial post. I have been really trying to find a way to display my panoramic images other than as a long annoying band of image. I find that it just didn't do justice to the amount of information in an image like this. I found this website, CleVR, which seems to do what I want. What should happen is that the panorama below should load up and you are given a few controls. First you should click on the "zoom out" button a couple of times to show a little bit more of the image at once. I find that it works the best at about one or two stops short of fully zoomed out. When you put the cursor over the image and it gives you a hand you should be able to click and drag in the direction you want to look. At fully zoomed out there are are a couple of spots that look distorted in the corners, at one level zoomed in there are vertical lines, and at two levels zoomed in you start to get degraded image quality. Although it is not perfect is the best option I've found to date. Let me know if you know of any better way of doing something like this!

This is a 9 image panorama taken from the top of Pike's Peak. From 14,115 ft you can see Colorado Springs below, the Garden of the Gods, the Barr Trail (the 13 mile trail leading up the mountain), and technically the wide open space in the distance is Kansas! Although I didn't take the hike up, it was more than worth the trip to the top.

Garden of the Gods for the Last Time

Ok ... just because I have an excess of images here from the garden of the gods, I'm posting them once more then we can move on to other images! Again, since I have too many Garden of the Gods images, you are getting four of them here and the rest will be up on FLICKR HERE by the time you read this. Next images to come include images from Bear Creek regional park, Pike's Peak, and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo!

The first image is of the central Garden of the Gods from the high point on ridge road. The second image is from one of the most picturesque parts of the Garden. This is the highest place you can get to (without rock climbing) in the central parts of the garden. The third image is of the famous "Pike's Peak" as the sun falls behind the mountain range. Finally, the last image shows what I was talking about earlier about the Colorado Springs landscape, desert and mountains!

Ridge Road Look Out


Up Close and Personal with the Garden of the Gods


Pike's Peak from the Garden of the Gods


Desert and Mountains

Garden of the Gods take II

On Tuesday I made another trip back to the Garden of the Gods in Colorading Springs, CO since I by no means got all the way through on Monday evening. I went in the other side and made it to the main parking lot. Here I got out and walked around some of the many, many trails available. I spent around 3-4 hours there again and STILL didn't get to see the whole park. Here are a couple of panoramas from this trip. Lots of images to come! Make sure you see all of them by coming back here and checking them out on Flickr.

Columns of Red Rock in the Garden of the Gods


Garden of the Gods and the Sun Setting Behind Pike's Peak