Pulpit Rock, Colorado Springs

A post work hike through an urban open space

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One thing I love about Colorado winters is we'll get a random 60° day. Last week, we had two. So I used that warm weather as an excuse to get outside by going on a five-mile walk with a friend on Wednesday and going with Adam on a short hike on Friday. I figured Pulpit Rock would be a good one. It's close to the house, and I'd hiked it previously with the in-laws, though I hadn't been on the trail since the city did some mitigation.

I was bang on as this was the view of Pikes Peak from the start of the trail. It was quite windy that day (hence the 60º temps), so you can see all of the dirt in the air in this shot.

Pulpit Rock is easily recognizable if you’re traveling around the western side of Colorado Springs. It kind of sticks out of the ground, you know, like a big rock often does. As we started the hike, we had a good vantage point of Pulpit Rock to the north.

It looks like Adam’s looking wistfully at the trail and rocks in the distance when, in reality, he’s patiently waiting for me to stop taking pictures!

The trail cuts back to the north and gently rises above the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) campus so there’s a better vantage point of the northwestern side of the city.

Notice the sticks on the foothills? That all burned in 2012 at the same time as the view we saw from Red Mountain, basically this brown area located in Google Maps.

Why is there a chimney and house ruins along the trail? Someone, at some point, used to live there. I did some quick searching while editing this photo, but no one seems to know lived here.

UCCS Campus to the south

I liked how the light hit this tree. I knew I would edit it in black and white.

The trail wraps to the backside of Pulpit Rock, so we were treated to a view to the east. Adam said there are trails near these hoodoos, so we’ll have to hike back in this area again! Adam knows all the trails from the thousands of miles he’s biked in this city.

You can see where the trail wraps around to the south on the right side of this image. This is looking towards Cheyenne Mountain. On a clear, non-windy day, you can see the Spanish Peaks south near Walsenburg.

Rich people views. Good for them!

The trail wrapped back around on the west side. It was evident pretty quickly that we weren’t going to see sunset from the summit. I thought we had enough time, and despite hoofing it, we didn't make it. Apparently I had stopped to take too many photos, whoopsie.

I did catch the sunset in one picture. I didn’t have time to add a filter to the camera, so the sky is a bit washed out. Oh well.

Once the sun set, the early evening light was quite pretty. It brought out those purple mountain majesties.

The summit of Pulpit Rock in the foreground.

This view will NEVER get old. How did I survive twenty-four years of my life without mountains in them?!

The magpies were enjoying the wind. They’d sit on the trees to rest, then flit around for a while.

Garden of the Gods to the lower left of the shot.

A better view of Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD) with downtown in front of it.

Some brave souls hiked to the top of the rock. It was too windy that day for me. The light was beautiful though.

Once we were at the top, I switched lenses to test out the view from my telephoto lens. Unfortunately, it was a bit too windy to use a tripod, so I shot by hand. These shots are not great, but they give you a good context for the location.

The Pikes Peak summit house. You can also see Barr Trail zigzagging the front of the peak.

Garden of the Gods.

I-25 with Friday traffic. I asked Adam if the “hump” was where I hiked in Greenland Open Space, and he thought so. You can also see the Air Force Academy’s air traffic control tower in the center.

The UCCS baseball field - nice turf with a view! There’s a shopping area along the lower part of the image with I-25 cutting through the middle.

These two were taking pictures of each other at the top. I was going to ask if they wanted a copy of this picture, but they took too long to hike down, LOL.

The magpies were still hanging out after sunset. I love the color of their tail.

Getting artsy. I told Adam I wanted to take a telephoto shot of the moon, then completely forgot when we got back to the car - probably because we were both starving.

We headed back down the trail, then noticed the clouds above the peak were lighting up. I told Adam there was a chance for color, and we almost missed it.

Trees growing out of rocks at the summit.

We didn’t wait at the summit for the dark red to appear. We happened to catch a bit of it at a clearing lower down the trail.

Last light touching Pulpit Rock.

Last light over the peak with the city lights appearing at dusk.

When we got back to the car, I told Adam that I’d like to hike Pulpit again, maybe in the summer. I know that I want to take more time hiking up to explore more of the trails and views. I’m also wondering what wildflowers grow in the area - they could help with some lovely compositions. I also know that I want to hang out at the top after dusk and shoot some long exposures. There’s a lot of potential in this little Colorado Springs park.

Cheers.