Pike's Peak Summit Tour

06/26/2019 By bucknuts

The Bride and I had weddings in Kansas City on June 21st and then another one in Omaha on June 29th. I told her I really wasn’t interested in driving to Kansas City and driving home for 9 hours and then a few days later drive all the way back same direction for 13 hours. So we decided we would take a mini vacation in between weddings and head to Colorado for a week. We rented a car, but little did we know the car was going to be a Cadillac sedan, and I’m thinking this is going to be my caching mobile for this trip.

###So over the course of the 11 days, we visited 10 states. I was able to get 5 caches that were Year 2000 including Mingo. I was able to get the oldest cache in 3 states…Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. Colored the state of New Mexico RED and put 3940 miles on the rental car. ###

This trip started out in Kansas City as the wedding was on Friday. So we cached the morning of Friday and did the Powercat challenges near Gladstone area. Loved walking the sidewalk, we did get a downpour on us, so hoped into a local spot for lunch and then once the rains lifted we went hiking again. Then went to the wedding on Friday night. Then next day on Saturday, went caching with Gnomecat, Louinliberty and Debrajean grabbing a few caches that I had handpicked out. Was great to see my KC friends for the 2nd weekend in a row after the previous week in Indiana and by the end of this trip it will be 3 weeks in a row. Had an amazing dinner at Gnomecats and enjoyed the great hospitality.

Then on Sunday June 23 is where the journey begins. We headed towards Colorado Springs and grabbed Mingo on the way there. This day was about 9 hours of driving and grabbed a few caches in the Colorado Springs area before meeting up with friends in the afternoon.

Monday June 24 was always going to be a big day both driving and hiking. We started it off by going to Paul Barkley (2nd 2000 year cache). Got lucky as that section of the park was closed to people on Tuesday due to electric work being done. Then from there the Cadillac took us to Geocache (3rd 2000 cache). Then after that we headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Tuesday June 25 we cached in Albuquerque in the morning doing a few wherigos and then headed over to the oldest cache in the state. Found the place to park and made the short hike up the hill. Then went across the way and did the Hangman hiking series. After we completed that we headed to Santa Fe to visit and then back to Colorado Springs.

Wednesday June 26th, we got up and headed off to Tarryall (4th 2000 year), those that get nervous about driving well the Cadillac made it just fine. After that we headed to Pikes Peak, it opened late because the car race practice was that morning. We drove up to mile 16 and then shuttle to the top because of the renovations to the new visitor center at top. After this we are now heading back East. We get to Kansas and find Airakee and then spend the night in Kearney. I was able to watch on the phone Vanderbilt win the World Series…Go Vandy Boys

Thursday June 27, drive to Omaha and meet the KC crew for the 3 week in a row and we drive to Sioux Falls to get the State Bird.

Friday June 28th, finish the last 21 of the Ficks Fizzy we had left. Bad news was on 61 Gnomecat fell in the ditch and went over his head in the water. The ditch had probably 8ft of water. Then headed to Omaha and did some challenges and parted ways

Saturday June 29th, some light caching before wedding and then came home on Sunday 13.5 hour drive.

Thanks to all the hiders. Earthcaches and Virtuals have sent answers. Challenges will either have a picture or available via public profile. Was able to leave my signature pencil in a few caches. Thanks for the cache-signed log.

06/08/2019 By unclerojelio
Awesome. Thanks!

04/04/2019 By Kilauea-Hualalai
Hard to find with a lot of snow, but after a while we found it
After the long trip to Mingo GC30 yesterday, we drove just a few miles less today. Two points of interest we wanted to see. First Dinosaur Ridge and later Pikes Peak. The weather was wonderful and so we had a great day. Amazing view over 14000 feet. Our body felt the high. Footsteps and Bones of the old time were very cool. On our visits we search and found some caches. On our way back to the hotel we stop for a Challange cache and now we have a 5 / 5 Found in Colorado.
Of course thanks to all the owners of the caches for the caches and the work behind. And sorry that we have not the time for individual logs.
Greetings from Duesseldorf – Gerresheim / Germany

10/22/2018 By hegenor
I have rented a campervan for 24 days to go geocaching and exploring around the western part of the US, starting in Denver.

Today I drove from Denver, up to Pikes Peak and spent the night in Woodland Park. It was really nice to be able to drive up to more than 4000m and enjoy the views up there, plus finding all the great caches.

About this cache:
Not possible to get to all stages, but I’m glad the final coordinates were added, so I could find this cache. Beautiful views from gz. Easy find on perfect coordinates. Tftc, greetings from Norway

09/27/2018 By GeoCGS
Need some “Altitude” today, to help with some Challenge caches where we do not currently qualify. Pike’s Peak was the answer. Early start and were able to drive all the way to summit. Summit picture first, and then everything available, considering construction. Found good parking, and made the find at final after short hike. TFTC!

09/21/2018 By SageInThyme82
I'm kinda bummed I couldn't finish the wherigo cartridge (the original summit house area is completely blocked off for construction right now), but thanks for providing the final spot anyway. I really enjoyed the final and took a bunch of pictures for the kids to study. Thanks so much!

09/05/2018 By Firemnky
On a Fall trip through Colorado doing some caching and seeing the sites. A beautiful scenic drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. Visiting the downtown areas of Boulder, Denver, Castle Rock and Colorado Springs to name a few. We enjoyed a beautiful hike on the Barr trail at the Summit of Pikes Peak. It was a wonderful trip with quite a bit of caching thrown in along the way.
We arrived at the entrance this morning and were second in line. When the ranger came by to talk with us they recommended we go straight to the top as there was an 80% chance of snow. We took her advice. We had sun on the way up and during our hike then the clouds rolled in and we endured snow, hail, sleet and rain on the way down. This made for an interesting day of caching with all the stops, but we survived and had fun. Thanks for placing this one.

09/03/2018 By qrang
We looked real hard so many rocks and possible hides and feeling a bit light headed had to give up

08/27/2018 By JBase
Colorado Road Trip!

Headed out for a long weekend road trip with a small number of hand picked caches. I headed south to Topeka and then to Colorado Springs, next to Cheyenne and Rapid City before heading home. I camped most of the way when I could find campgrounds. The scenery was incredible and the hikes in the mountains worth the trip. All these caches made the trip worth every minute!

When I arrived the summit was closed because of high wind, over 70 MPH. Because of the construction I had to shuttle to the top, I thought about hiking down the rails but there was a no trespass sign. I shuttled back down and they said I could now drive up! When I got to the parking area, there was a Marmot blocking traffic and not moving! I finally got parked and started to look. It took me well over 20 minutes to find the cache. Thanks for the hide!

Thanks Manitou Cacher for the cache!

JBase Smile Smile Smile