Pikes Peak by Open-Air Jeep, With a Cowboy at the Wheel
A guided run up the Pikes Peak Highway to 14,115 feet and back down through red rock, in a Jeep with the sides open. Adventures Out West runs it in the morning, when the road is quieter and the air is clearest, and the driving is not your problem.
The Pikes Peak Highway climbs nineteen miles to a summit at 14,115 feet. Near the top it folds into a set of switchbacks cut across an open slope, and the drop beside the road is the kind most drivers would rather not study while steering.
Adventures Out West puts a guide behind the wheel and sends the Jeeps up in the morning. The company says it schedules the climb early for the best views and weather the mountain offers, and to stay ahead of the day's traffic on a road that is mostly one lane each way. You ride with the sides open and a wool blanket over your knees.
The listing and the company both point to the same piece of history: the view from the top is the one Katharine Lee Bates credited with putting the words of America the Beautiful in her head.
Check-in is 15 minutes before departure, the Jeeps leave on time, and a missed departure is not refunded.
The Jeeps are tall. Some of them you enter by a ladder bolted to the side, which is the detail most booking pages leave out.
Adventures Out West asks that every guest be able to climb in and out on their own or with help from someone in their own party. Its guides are not permitted to assist, though a step stool is available. Anyone unsteady on their feet should ask for a front seat when booking, by phone. The company also keeps one Jeep built around a wheelchair lift, with room for one chair and three standard seats, and it can be requested for any of its tours on the same phone line.
This is worth reading closely, because the booking page ticks a box that reads suitable for all physical fitness levels. The operator's own wording is narrower, and the operator is the one who meets you at the curb.
Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods Jeep TourAdventures Out West · about 4 hours · morning departures from the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Centerwww.viator.comNineteen Miles of Switchbacks, and Someone Else Is Steering
The climb runs nineteen miles of mountain highway to 14,115 feet. Guides stop at the summit and at several overlooks on the way, and the road passes a string of mountain reservoirs that most visitors end up photographing on the descent.
At the top there is a visitor center, built recently enough that the company still calls it the new one, and a marker giving the elevation in both feet and meters. The air at that height is thin enough that the walk from the parking area to the marker is slower than it looks.
Dress for a different season than the one you left. Adventures Out West puts the summit 20 to 40 degrees colder than Colorado Springs, and it hands out summit parkas and keeps the rear seats heated for exactly that reason. Bring your own gloves and a hat anyway.
Red Rock on the Way Home, Without Getting Out
The second half of the tour is the Garden of the Gods, the city park of fins and spires that sits at the foot of the mountain you have just come down from. The company describes this stretch as seeing the entire park.
Parking inside the park is tight and the loop road moves continuously, so the realistic picture is a slow drive with the sides open, not a series of walks. In an open Jeep that is no great loss. The sandstone runs within a few feet of the road in places, and nothing is between you and it.
The tour meets at the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center on North 30th Street, where parking is free, so you finish where your car is already sitting.
Who Rides, and What Rides With You
Jeeps are shared. The company mixes separate parties into one vehicle, and a single booking can hold up to nine people.
- Children under six months cannot be booked. The company separately advises against the summit for babies under ten months.
- Anyone under four years old or under 40 pounds must arrive with their own child seat. Booster seats are the family's responsibility too.
- The listing advises against the trip for pregnant travelers, for anyone with a spinal injury, and for anyone with cardiovascular trouble. The company's own line is to ask a doctor before going this high.
- Water and light snacks ride along in every Jeep, and the company still asks you to bring a bottle of your own.
- Alcohol and smoking are not permitted on board.
Wool lap blankets come with the Jeep. So does a guide who will talk for four hours about geology, weather and the people who built the road.
Before You Book
Cancel more than 24 hours ahead and the booking refunds in full. Inside 24 hours it does not refund at all, and neither does simply failing to turn up.
This listing sells a season, not a year. Its calendar runs into late November and goes dark on Thanksgiving Day. The company's lower-altitude Jeep tours keep running into December after this one stops, so a winter visit means booking a different trip.
Departures are early. The current season loads 7:30 and 8:30 starts, with later slots appearing only occasionally, and the exact time is attached to the date you pick. Reservations are recommended; the company says its tours often sell out.
One thing to settle at the counter: Adventures Out West lists highway fees among what its rate covers in one place on its own site, and prints plus, highway fee beside that same rate a line earlier. Ask which applies to your booking when you check in.
Adventures Out West has been running trips out of Colorado Springs since 1973, and the same family still owns it, now into a third generation. In summer it fields more than 120 staff across Jeeps, balloons, ziplines and horses.
The meeting point is the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center at 1805 North 30th Street, and its lot does not charge. Arrive a quarter hour early, take the blanket, and let someone who drives this road daily handle the switchbacks.