Pikes Peak Cog Railway & Manitou Springs Town 🚂🏔️

Been busy the past few days — finally writing about our last day! Today’s main event: riding the cog railway to the summit of Pikes Peak (over 4,000 meters high!). We booked our tickets about two weeks in advance on the official website. Following recommendations, we chose two Seat A spots facing each other. We parked at a public lot in Manitou Springs and took the free shuttle to the train station — less than a 10-minute ride and super convenient! 🚌 The train departed at 10 AM. Initially, it passed through rocky areas, streams, and forests 🌲💦. The opposite side actually had more scenery early on, but once we reached higher open areas, the best views were on the A side! The train moved slowly — about 1 hour to the top — but the conductor shared fun facts and stories along the way, so it never felt boring. We had 1 hour at the summit, perfect for grabbing lunch at the visitor center 🍔☕. The famous high-altitude donuts 🍩 are supposedly extra fluffy due to the thin air, but I wasn’t impressed. Instead, the burger we randomly ordered was amazing! It wasn’t a typical patty — it was a big piece of braised beef (yes, just like the Chinese kind!), tender and slightly fatty. So good! The weather was sunny and calm — I only wore a hoodie and felt fine ❄️➡️☀️. No altitude sickness either! We’d even bought two small oxygen cans from Walmart (found in the sports section, not pharmacy — we looked everywhere first!), but didn’t need them at all. Just to avoid wasting them, I tried one anyway… and felt a little silly since the elderly couple next to us (in their 70s or 80s!) looked totally fine without oxygen 😅. The train doesn’t turn around on the descent — you keep the same view you had on the way up. So choosing your seat wisely matters! The ride down was slightly faster, about 50 minutes. After getting off, we explored Manitou Springs 🏘️. Like most tourist towns, it’s full of souvenir shops, jewelry stores, restaurants, and ice cream parlors 🍦. You could easily spend hours here, though it felt a bit lacking in unique character. The one special feature? The town’s seven natural mineral springs 💧! We tried water from all except the farthest one (Iron Spring). Some tasted like tap water, but others were crisp and sparkling — like bottled soda water! This was our last day in Colorado — much more relaxed than the previous three. Already feeling a bit 😫 about returning to normal life tomorrow… So much left unseen, so much left to do. Next time for sure! #PikesPeak #ManitouSprings #ColoradoTravel #TravelDiary #FamilyTrip #MountainAdventure