- Location
- Never Far From Nowhere
Last May I happened upon a video of Sebastian Loeb’s record setting run up Pikes Peak in 2013. Now, ever since I was a kid, video’s of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb had tantalized me. The Indy cars that used to drive it in the 60’s, Ari Vatanen’s runs in the Peugeot 205 T16 and 405 T16 during the 80’s, and Monster Tajima’s string of records during the 90’s. So I’d always had it on my bucket list of motorsporting events that must be attended at some point in my life. After watching Loeb crush the record, I decided that this needed to be the year.
Thus, on June 24th-27th of 2016 my Dad, my buddy Chris and I went to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. We left Salt Lake at five in the morning on Friday and drove straight through with only a stop in Fort Collins for lunch. We got to Colorado Springs around three in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and then drove up to the entrance of Pikes Peak. We didn’t feel the need to pay to get in, since we’d be up there most of the day on Saturday, but we wanted to get an idea of how to get there. After that brief excursion, we headed into Colorado Springs to check out Fan Fest, basically a big vendor show spanning several blocks in the heart of the city. As with most vendor shows, there was a lot of crap, but it was entertaining enough. Most of the cars competing were lined up there and it was interesting to see many of them up close. The coolest of them all being a 1983 Audi Quattro. Such and iconic car, and amazing to be able to see up close and talk to the owner about.
Heading across I-80 in Wyoming.
Scenic US-287 in norther Colorado.
The fully restored Broadmoor Special, which ran in the inaugural 1916 Hill Climb. They ran it in 2016 up to the halfway point to commemorate the centenary.
Interesting custom hill climb car.
Mazda rotary powered LMP2 style car.
Garage built franken-E30. This really was just a hackjob of a car, but pretty cool to see!
Rod Millen’s record setting 1994 all-wheel drive Toyota Celica.
One of the most epic production vehicles in history, the Audi Quattro. This vehicle changed rallying, road racing, and passenger cars forever; and ranks as one of my all time favorites!
After a few hours of wandering Fan Fest we’d seen pretty much everything there was to see. As with all vendor shows, about 10% of what’s there is interesting and the rest is just garbage. Around the time the Red Bull motorcycle stunt show was getting underway, we decided to mosey on outta there and grab some dinner. We found a nice place called the Odyssey Gastropub which satisfied Chris and mine’s thirst for some quality Colorado microbrews. Then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before the real events of the weekend came upon us.
Saturday morning dawned early for us, but after a decent breakfast and a bit of walking we were ready to embark on the adventure that is Pikes Peak! The mountain was to open for campers at noon, so we packed up the hotel and headed up towards the entrance at about 9:30, and boy was that a good idea! The closer it got to noon, the more people started lining up. By the time they let us head up, several hundred vehicles were packed into the parking lot for the North Pole Amusement Park (which is the creepiest amusement part I’ve ever seen!).
Not exactly an inviting sign…
Sure looks fun!
…until you glimpse the terrifying Santa atop the candy cane slide.
Once the gates opened, we raced up the mountain to our designated camping spot at 9-Mile, which, as the name suggests, is nine miles up the mountain. We quickly set up camp and took off for the summit. The road is truly epic! From a spectator’s view, it is sad that it is now paved all the way to the top. No more Group B rally cars blasting along the gravel with giant clouds of dust billowing behind them. But from a tourist driving a sedan’s perspective, it makes it much more enjoyable!
Due to traffic, there were few sections that I was really able to really open it up. But when I could, it was great and my Kizashi Sport was a pleasure to drive as we carved the through the corners and ate up the tarmac on the straight sections. Truly an amazing road to drive!
We reached the summit at over 14,000 feet and were greeted by spectacular views. Sadly, it was packed with tourists, many of which had taken the iconic cog railroad up to visit the gift shop and restaurant at the summit. Tourist always annoy me, even when I’m one of them. I suppose it might be because I generally try to inform myself about the places that I’m visiting. So, when a group of Easterners are walking around wondering why there are no trees, or are surprised that there is still snow in late June, or make comments about how the railroad is ‘hundreds of years old’ I just wonder how they can be so stupid, frankly.
We wandered around the summit taking in the views for a bit before we descended back down the 14.7 miles to the pits. At the halfway point on the mountain they stop all traffic and rangers check the temperature of your breaks using laser thermometers. If you’re breaks are over 300 degrees, they require you to pull off for a while and let them cool down. A smart safety move, to say the least. When they checked mine, the ranger said, “Oh, wow! Um, your breaks are almost 600 degrees! You need to pull off and wait for like half an hour for them to cool down!” My slotted, cross drilled rotors were probably fine as I felt no fade, but it’s a smart service to provide for the average driver and gave us an excuse to stop for lunch and enjoy some car watching.
When we finally made it to the pits, there was nothing going on. With qualifying having happened on Friday, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but having been to a number of other motorsporting events in the past, I figured that there would have been some action for us to wander around and inspect, but that wasn’t the case. There were a few teams working on things, but for the most part it was pretty empty down there. So, nine miles back up the road to our camp we went!
We rolled into camp to find many, many more people stuffed into our little area than had been there at noon. We wandered around a bit to see if there was anything interesting going on, but it was mostly groups getting the pre-race partying going early. Our plan was to get to bed pretty early and then wake up at 1:30 in the morning to make our way up to Devils Playground to get a good spot at one of the most iconic corners on the mountain.
Where it all begins!
Spectacular view to the northwest!
The iconic cog railway from Manitou to the summit.
An abrupt end to the railway…
Plaque commemorating Zebulon Montgomery Pike, the man who discovered Pikes Peak.
View back down towards Colorado Springs.
Thus, on June 24th-27th of 2016 my Dad, my buddy Chris and I went to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. We left Salt Lake at five in the morning on Friday and drove straight through with only a stop in Fort Collins for lunch. We got to Colorado Springs around three in the afternoon, checked into our hotel and then drove up to the entrance of Pikes Peak. We didn’t feel the need to pay to get in, since we’d be up there most of the day on Saturday, but we wanted to get an idea of how to get there. After that brief excursion, we headed into Colorado Springs to check out Fan Fest, basically a big vendor show spanning several blocks in the heart of the city. As with most vendor shows, there was a lot of crap, but it was entertaining enough. Most of the cars competing were lined up there and it was interesting to see many of them up close. The coolest of them all being a 1983 Audi Quattro. Such and iconic car, and amazing to be able to see up close and talk to the owner about.
Heading across I-80 in Wyoming.
Scenic US-287 in norther Colorado.
The fully restored Broadmoor Special, which ran in the inaugural 1916 Hill Climb. They ran it in 2016 up to the halfway point to commemorate the centenary.
Interesting custom hill climb car.
Mazda rotary powered LMP2 style car.
Garage built franken-E30. This really was just a hackjob of a car, but pretty cool to see!
Rod Millen’s record setting 1994 all-wheel drive Toyota Celica.
One of the most epic production vehicles in history, the Audi Quattro. This vehicle changed rallying, road racing, and passenger cars forever; and ranks as one of my all time favorites!
After a few hours of wandering Fan Fest we’d seen pretty much everything there was to see. As with all vendor shows, about 10% of what’s there is interesting and the rest is just garbage. Around the time the Red Bull motorcycle stunt show was getting underway, we decided to mosey on outta there and grab some dinner. We found a nice place called the Odyssey Gastropub which satisfied Chris and mine’s thirst for some quality Colorado microbrews. Then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before the real events of the weekend came upon us.
Saturday morning dawned early for us, but after a decent breakfast and a bit of walking we were ready to embark on the adventure that is Pikes Peak! The mountain was to open for campers at noon, so we packed up the hotel and headed up towards the entrance at about 9:30, and boy was that a good idea! The closer it got to noon, the more people started lining up. By the time they let us head up, several hundred vehicles were packed into the parking lot for the North Pole Amusement Park (which is the creepiest amusement part I’ve ever seen!).
Not exactly an inviting sign…
Sure looks fun!
…until you glimpse the terrifying Santa atop the candy cane slide.
Once the gates opened, we raced up the mountain to our designated camping spot at 9-Mile, which, as the name suggests, is nine miles up the mountain. We quickly set up camp and took off for the summit. The road is truly epic! From a spectator’s view, it is sad that it is now paved all the way to the top. No more Group B rally cars blasting along the gravel with giant clouds of dust billowing behind them. But from a tourist driving a sedan’s perspective, it makes it much more enjoyable!
Due to traffic, there were few sections that I was really able to really open it up. But when I could, it was great and my Kizashi Sport was a pleasure to drive as we carved the through the corners and ate up the tarmac on the straight sections. Truly an amazing road to drive!
We reached the summit at over 14,000 feet and were greeted by spectacular views. Sadly, it was packed with tourists, many of which had taken the iconic cog railroad up to visit the gift shop and restaurant at the summit. Tourist always annoy me, even when I’m one of them. I suppose it might be because I generally try to inform myself about the places that I’m visiting. So, when a group of Easterners are walking around wondering why there are no trees, or are surprised that there is still snow in late June, or make comments about how the railroad is ‘hundreds of years old’ I just wonder how they can be so stupid, frankly.
We wandered around the summit taking in the views for a bit before we descended back down the 14.7 miles to the pits. At the halfway point on the mountain they stop all traffic and rangers check the temperature of your breaks using laser thermometers. If you’re breaks are over 300 degrees, they require you to pull off for a while and let them cool down. A smart safety move, to say the least. When they checked mine, the ranger said, “Oh, wow! Um, your breaks are almost 600 degrees! You need to pull off and wait for like half an hour for them to cool down!” My slotted, cross drilled rotors were probably fine as I felt no fade, but it’s a smart service to provide for the average driver and gave us an excuse to stop for lunch and enjoy some car watching.
When we finally made it to the pits, there was nothing going on. With qualifying having happened on Friday, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but having been to a number of other motorsporting events in the past, I figured that there would have been some action for us to wander around and inspect, but that wasn’t the case. There were a few teams working on things, but for the most part it was pretty empty down there. So, nine miles back up the road to our camp we went!
We rolled into camp to find many, many more people stuffed into our little area than had been there at noon. We wandered around a bit to see if there was anything interesting going on, but it was mostly groups getting the pre-race partying going early. Our plan was to get to bed pretty early and then wake up at 1:30 in the morning to make our way up to Devils Playground to get a good spot at one of the most iconic corners on the mountain.
Where it all begins!
Spectacular view to the northwest!
The iconic cog railway from Manitou to the summit.
An abrupt end to the railway…
Plaque commemorating Zebulon Montgomery Pike, the man who discovered Pikes Peak.
View back down towards Colorado Springs.
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