purple mountain majesties

O beautiful for spacious skies, 
For amber waves of grain, 
For purple mountain majesties 
Above the fruited plain! 

America! America! 
God shed His grace on thee, 
And crown thy good with brotherhood 
From sea to shining sea!

--Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) American songwriter.

Photos from my recent trip to Colorado Springs (pop. 416,427) -- a beautiful city located at the base of Pikes Peak (14,115 feet).  It was a trip to the summit of Pikes Peak in 1893 that inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful". There are two ways to reach the summit, the first is to drive there along a very steep, winding 19 mile toll road (which is what we did), the second is to take the cog railroad up the mountain. Click here to see the live view from the summit.

As you can imagine, the weather at 14,000+ feet can be pretty severe. They've already had snow! Fortunately for us, the day we went it was a balmy 58 degrees at the top.  Click here to see the current conditions. [click photos to enlarge]

Favorite places we visited in Colorado Springs:
Pikes Peak
Garden of the Gods
Cheyenne Mountain State Park
US Air Force Academy Chapel
Lake Pueblo