Next time I plan on taking a tiny 4-cylinder thingie up it. A tiny 4-cylinder thingie with a monster turbo, close-ratio 6-speed and AWD. And Michelle Mouton will greet me at the top with a shower of hugs and kisses!!!

And then I’ll wake up in a puddle.

Ah, I see you have dreamed of driving the S4 Quattro!

To exploit and thereby earn a living.

Oh, I’m rather partial to the parts of the Rockies that stretch through Wyoming. Probably because they are the ones I know. One can be enamored of folded terrain. I know this one place . . .

Thanks again!

Next time I plan on taking a tiny 4-cylinder thingie up it. A tiny 4-cylinder thingie with a monster turbo, close-ratio 6-speed and AWD. And Michelle Mouton will greet me at the top with a shower of hugs and kisses!!!

And then I’ll wake up in a puddle.

Phil, if you haven’t done the following, you should: take the Littlest Astronomer and Mrs BA on a drive over to I-70 and get off at Rainbow Cut — which is in Golden, just about where 470 crosses I-70. It’s an amazing cut through millions ofyears of geologic history, and there’s a cool drive around one of the hills where you can stop and look at things like dinosaur tracks and prehistoric turtles in the cliff faces. We did a number of field trips over there… it’s about 35 minutes drive from where you live.

We’re hoping to move back to Colorado after 11 years in NE… once a mountain person, always a mountain person!

I have a photo I took last summer from about 50 miles north of the peak. Pikes Peak is the very faint mountain in center middle – http://home.comcast.net/~bethkatz/Reynolds.jpg

The Appalachians are older mountains with a different sort of feel and look to them. Still wonderful.

I’m moving to Denver soon. My sister, who is an engineer there, says she can see the Flatirons from one side of her office, and Pikes Peak from the other.

Nice pics, BTW, Phil.

When I lived in Scotland, I used to have a lovely view of the Ochils from my upstairs windows. But they are way older and rounder than the Rockies (although, apparently, they are made of the same rock as the eastern side of North America – most of Scotland used to be connected to North America when the Atlantic was no more than a creek). Still, it was fun each autumn to watch the snow-line gradually ease its way down the hills.

I was flying with a capt who was a YEC, but a nice guy, but looking out at all the geological features gave me such a sense of wonder and [reverence], and the feeling of ancientness of the earth is so strong.

He asked the question that ‘doesn’t it make you think god exists?’

Have you heard about this story: Pilot pinned down after ‘invoking’ God on flight?

/just sayin’

I also strongly recommend visiting Garden of the Gods if you’re ever in the Springs. It’s part of an ancient seabed tilted vertical by the uplift event that created Pike’s Peak. Spectacular, even if you aren’t a geology nerd.

@Justin: If you ever get the chance, go. I spent 9 years in New Orleans. Love the city, but the only topography is the levees and Monkey Hill at Audubon Zoo. The Rockies will knock your socks off.

*is shot*

I am a pilot for maybe the airline you were on, and I have flown that route many times. Every time I am flying over the rockies, I am always taken in by the view, no matter how many times. We have a much better view up front too! sorry.

I was flying with a capt who was a YEC, but a nice guy, but looking out at all the geological features gave me such a sense of wonder and reverance, and the feeling of ancientness of the earth is so strong.

He asked the question that ‘doesn’t it make you think god exists?’

I answered no. It gives me such a fulfilling sense of wonder and awe at the amazing splendor of nature. I don’t need to believe in Santa Claus to appreciate a gift either.