Pikes Peak

After our flight back to Denver Colorado we ascended the famous Pikes Peak, also known as America’s mountain because the words for the song ‘America the Beautiful’ were inspired by the spectacular summit views.  It is also the course for the Race to the Clouds hill climb which kiwi Rod Millen has done many times so we just had to drive it as well.  The narrow, winding highway began surrounded by red rocks, aspen and fir trees and climbed through to the sub alpine areas where the oldest trees on earth, the Bristlecone Pines grow.  They are only found in 6 western states of the USA and the current oldest living tree is 5063 years of age.  They are multi-trunked trees, gnarled and twisted by the elements.  Much of the pine is dead wood which is actually a clever survival strategy.  After the tree is damaged by fire, drought or storms it dies back and this reduces the nutrients the tree has to supply.  The remaining parts are very healthy.   The wood of the bristle cone is very dense, and trees can remain standing for hundreds of years after dying. 
We then crossed the timberline where the trees stopped growing and travelled into the Alpine Tundra area full of dry meadows, rocks and shale.  Every 1000ft in elevation you go up is like travelling 600 miles to the north.  In the tundra the marmots (large ground squirrels) sunbathed on the rocks and small alpine daisies grew out of the cracks in the stones.  The 19 mile drive took us to the summit of 14110ft (nearly 2000ft higher than Mt Cook) where the temperature was near freezing.  The views were outstanding although the skies were hazy.  We looked hard for the big horned mountain sheep and elk but didn’t see any.  Bigfoot didn’t make an appearance either so we had to settle for a statue photo with him.
On the way down, we stopped at the park ranger’s booth at 11450ft for a mandatory brake temperature check and discovered he had visited the Coromandel Peninsula last year.  Our new best friend then asked if we had seen the fake trees, rocks and machinery further up.  He proceeded to tell us that his lips were sealed but that it was all movie props for the upcoming filming of Fast & Furious 7.  We are looking forward to seeing their cars on the tight switchbacks!
From here we are continuing southwest towards Utah and Arizona, the desert states.