It had been at least six years since I'd hiked Pikes Peak and I had never done it starting at the Crags Campground. Andre has never hiked Pikes Peak or any other 14,000' mountain in his life. So we started early took Highway 24 to the Crags Campground parking lot and began the ascent. The trail starting from the Crags is approximately 14 miles round trip, as opposed to 26 miles from Bar Trail.
We parked slightly too soon, if we had kept going it would have knocked half of a mile off our trip both ways. When you are on Highway 67 you turn left onto a dirt road that has a sign for the Crags. You take this road for over three miles, you pass a creepy Mennonite camp and then come to a parking lot, you want to pass this parking lot and go to the next one.
We started out in a wooded area and didn't see any signs of life except a woodpecker for at least an hour.
The trail was extremely steep, I kept telling myself it had to level out at some point but it never really did... eventually we blew past several groups of hikers and found ourselves above tree line. The trail was still steep, ridiculously steep, and now the sun was rising over the hill we were climbing and blinding us, then there were the bees... they seemed to be attacking from all directions. I started getting discouraged, but as soon as we made it over this hill, there was a road that leveled out!
The valley/forest we just hiked through
This road leads to the Devils Playground parking lot near the road that people take to the summit.
Finally level trail! Almost to the Devils Playground, Pikes Peak in the background directly behind us.
After reaching the Devils Playground parking lot you cross the road and continue on the left side of the road. Shortly after you pass what is called "the bottomless pit" which is basically a very steep cliff you walk by...
Standing at the bottomless pit
Andre at the bottomless pit
The trail starts to get steep again, we took a break, drank some water, had a granola bar and started off ... Shortly after our break Andre had a terrible, terrible Charlie Horse in his right calf. It was so bad he didn't think he could continue, but he persevered.
Eventually we came to a spot of large chopped up rocks that you have to scramble up in order to get to the top. This was actually a nice break from hiking straight up because you got to use both your hands and feet. And, of course there were Marmots, lots of awesome marmots.
Finally at the top of the pile or rocks we made it! There were hundreds of tourists who had either driven up, or taken the cog up the mountain. There is even a restaurant/gift shop at the top where we each got a doughnut and bought some gatorade for Andre.
Pikes Peak Summit! 14,110'
This hike was very difficult, the trail is clearly marked but it was just steep as heck the whole time. If I had to do this again I would just hike the extra miles and take Bar Trail. Pikes Peak is a must do, but it is an ugly mountain, it doesn't have even close to the views you get from hiking others, and it feels almost discouraging when you get to the top and see all the tourists who drove their vehicles up to the Summit...
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