A visit to Pikes Peak Mountain in Colorado

On Tuesday June 17, I drove to the top of Pikes Peak Mountain in Colorado. Pikes Peak is a little over an hours drive from Denver Colorado. I have been in Denver working this week. My co-worker and I could not resist the chance to drive up the mountain. Pikes Peak is 14,100 feet high. The drive up the mountain is over 20 miles. Here is a picture I took at the first overlook on the way up the mountain. This is looking over the UTE Pass.

*** You can click on any of these pictures and see a bigger image. Once you click for a larger image, you will need to press your browsers BACK button to get back to my blog page***


On the way up to the main mountain, the road took us by a small reservoir/lake. The water was so clear and clean we could see far into the water depths and see the fish. Here is a picture of me beside the lake. You can see the Pikes Peak mountain range in the background.


The 12000 foot level is called the "timberline" or "treeline" and no trees generally grow above that elevation due to the thinness of the atmosphere and the colder temperatures. As you can see in this picture, there are still some traces of snow here and it is summer. This place would not be very comfortable in the winter. In fact it is dangerous and they close much of the park and the main road leading up to the peak during the winter.


The temperature dropped very fast as we drove up the mountain. When we started up the mountain road, at the bottom of the mountain, the temperature was 85F. At the top of the mountain, the temperature had dropped to 45F (at 3PM in the afternoon). And it was windy. Here is a picture looking down on the winding road as we were on the way up.


There were several places to pull over on the way up (overlooks). Here is one of the overlooks when we were getting close to the top.


At the peak of the mountain, there is a small shop for drinks and food and souveniers. The atmosphere was so thin at 14,100 feet that it was very hard to breathe sometimes. Even when we didn't really do much physical activity, I was breathing hard. But it was worth the trip for sure. Here is a picture of me at the sign at the summit.


They have a train called the COG Train that takes passengers to the top also. I am glad we drove to the top instead of riding the train, beacuse we enjoyed stopping at the overlooks and getting more pictures. Here is a picture of the train as it was arriving at the summit.


Pikes Peak is part of the Rocky Mountains range. And of course the upper mountains are very rocky once you get past the timberline. Here is a sign that was posted at the top of the mountain proclaiming the Rocky Mountains to be the longest mountain chain in the world.


These pictures can't really tell the whole story, but at least you can get some idea of how awesome the view was from these pics. Here are a few more various pics.









At the base of the mountain, ther are many birch trees growing. These trees are unusual since they have a white/grey bark. here's a picture of a few of them.

A visit to St.Louis arch

I was working in St.Louis-Missouri last week. I finally got a spare couple of hours to visit the St.Louis Gateway Arch. The arch is a US National Monument that is located in a park beside the Mississippi River. It is made of stainless steel and is 630 feet high (twice as high as the Statue of Liberty). The arch construction was completed October 28, 1965. In the picture below, notice that the arch appears taller than it is wide. However, that is an optical illusion. The distance between the ends of the legs is the same as the height (630ft). Here is a picture I borrowed from someone else as viewed across the river. ***Note that ALL pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them:


The following picture is of me at the bottom of one of the legs of the arch:



At the foot of each leg of the arch is an underground entrance. There is also a great museum that details the construction of the arch and the history of the area and the expansion of US territories to the west. There is also a movie theater showing historical movies. The following picture is a view of the entrance under one of the legs of the arch:


Here is a close up picture of the plaque (above the entrance) that commemorates the construction of the arch:


The Arch has a tram system that uses small "pods" to carry passengers to the top. There are small windows at the top for a great view of downtown St.Louis on the west side and of the Mississippi River and the state of Illinois on the east.

The tram ride to the top of the arch is via small "pods" that seat up to 5 persons. The pods are very small and probably not a great ride for those persons who do not like small enclosed spaces. Fortunately, the ride to the top takes only about 3-4 minutes. Once at the top, you can exit the pod in a hallway with several windows. Of course the view is great and you can stay up there as long as you wish. Pod rides back to the bottom are every 5-10 minutes. Here is a picture of one of the "pods" like the one that I rode to the top of the arch:


The following picture is of myself at the top of the arch:


Here is one interesting picture that I took from the top of the arch (notice the shadow of the arch was perfectly aligned on the ground in front of the old courthouse building. This picture is facing the city to the west:


The arch is right beside the Mississippi River. Looking eastward, I got this picture of the river:


While at the top of the arch, I was able to get a great picture of the baseball stadium where the St.Louis Cardinals play:



Here are two more pictures that I took looking downward from the top of the arch at each of the legs:




And finally here is an interesting picture I took from the bottom of one leg with my camera right against the arch leg looking upwards to the top of the arch:


If you want to know more about the arch or see more pictures, then check out this address:
http://www.gatewayarch.com/Arch/info/arch.fact.aspx

St.Louis Hardee's restaurant

While in St.Louis, we came across a unique Hardee's restaurant. Check out these pictures I took as we were leaving:

Lexington-Kentucky March 05 and April 10, 2008

It's been a long time since my last pictures post but I am back now. With my new job change, I am traveling some new places in the US. Since I started my new job, I have already been to Atlanta twice, St.Louis twice, Orlando once, Cleveland once, and I am currently in Lexington Kentucky for this week.

Lexington is known as the horse capital of the world. The country side is mostly rolling hills with lots of pastures for the horses. Here are some sample pictures of some of the horse pastures and ranches:

I found an interesting poster on the wall of a restaurant in Lexington. The restaurant is called Max and Erma's. I took a picture of the poster and I am sharing it here. Have a look:

On one of our drives outside of Lexington, we came across a new construction site for a castle. It appears to be someone's residence. The castle looks to be quite impressive once it is finished. We could not get very close, but here's a pic from the main road:

Fargo-North Dakota

Last week, I spent 3 days working in Fargo North Dakota. I was very busy the entire time I was there, but I was able to see a few sites. Fargo is on the border between North Dakota and Minnesota. The Red River runs through the center of town. The river is also the state border line. The town on the North Dakota side is Fargo. The portion of town on the Minnesota side is named Moorhead.

One thing Fargo is well know for is the fact that the famous baseball player Roger Maris grew up in the Fargo area. Roger Maris was the first player to break Babe Ruth's single season homerun record of 60. He hit 61 home runs in 1961 while playing for the New York Yankees.

He was born across the border in Minnesota, but his family moved to Fargo where Roger spent his school years. He was active in school sports and later started his professional baseball career by playing for one of the Minnestoa farm teams in Fargo. They have a Roger Maris Museum inside the Fargo Mall. I visited the museum and took some pictures that are below (you can click on many of the pictures below to see a larger version).

There are 61 banners hanging from the ceiling along the edge of the display cases with one banner for each homerun that he hit on the way to the record. The date and location of each of his 61 home runs is displayed on the banners.

They have lots of trophies and memorabilia from Roger's career. Including many of the bats and balls from his many homeruns. Here is a close-up pic of some of the items:

One interesting fact about Roger Maris is that he has still not been selected for membership into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There has been much controversy over the years about this, but so far he has not been selected.

They even had a minature replica of Roger Maris' gravestone (see below). He is buried in a Fargo cemetery

Also, I did a lot of driving around the eastern North Dakota countryside from Fargo up to Grand Forks. It is very flat terrain with many large wide open farm fields. I saw fields of corn, soybeans, and even sunflowers. Some of the fields were so large that you could not even see the other ends of the rows. There were many small towns. Many of them might only have some grain silos, a store, and about 10 houses.

There are many native American Indian tribes in the area. Some of the town names are old Indian names too. Here is a picture of one of the state road signs that showed a picture of an Indian chief along with the road number.

Lake Superior- Noth Shore

This evening I took a drive up the scenic higway along the north shore of Lake Superior. There are some nice views on the road there. They call highway 61 their scenic drive route. There are lots of rental cabins, hotels, lodges, small towns with crafts, etc. The landscape is very rocky in many places. Sometimes the road varies from lake level up to a few hundred feet above the lake. The road has overlook parking lots at regualr intervals.

Here are a few pics from some of the overlooks.















There are also road tunnels thru some of the larger hills like the one below.




There is also a bike/hiking trail that runs alongside the road and the lake most of the way to Canada. It is called the Gitchi Gami State Trail.







There is a great water fall along the trail from the Gooseberry River (called Gooseberry Falls). There is an Upper, Middle, and Lower falls. I visited the middle and lower falls at the Gooseberry State Park. Here are some pics from the park and the middle falls.
















Here's a close up shot of the lower falls.







There are lots of exposed lava rocks in the area. The river has eroded the rock in many areas. Here are some pics of the lava rock in the river and above it.








Here's a picture of an interesting tree root growing in the rocks beside the river.



Here's another picture of an interesting tree that was hollow and twisted but it was still thriving.


Farther up the lake coast drive, there is a major attraction called the Split Rock Lighthouse. It sits up on a rocky hill directly on the coast in another state park. I tried to get to it, but I was too late. It was closed when I got there. However, I did barely get the following picture (just before dark) from one of the overlooks. You can just barely see the lighthouse way off in the distance in the middle of the picture.





And here's a picture from a brochure I picked up that shows a close up of the lighthouse.