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I always suggest that first timers watch the race from Devil’s Playground, this is the best place to make some amazing Pikes Peak memories (as long as you have the patience to deal with all the traffic and mouth breathers). To view from a good spot you’ll need to be in line for the tollgate by 1AM, expect to be parked at your spot by 5 or 6AM and be ready to wait until 8AM for the race to start. That’s right, you wake up SEVEN HOURS before the race even starts. How long the race takes depends on the weather, the number of competitors, and the number of accidents that will pause the race. If you’re lucky you can be back to your hotel by 8PM, but more likely it will be 9 or 10PM. Be sure to leave room for a few naps in your day’s agenda.
If that doesn’t sound like your cup o’ tea, then the starting line is the second best spot to take in all the action. You can get away with showing up a bit later and still manage to find decent parking, although you’ll have to walk up to the start line so don’t be TOO sluggish or you could be walking a few miles. At the start line you can watch all the teams prepare, feel the anticipation of the drivers before their run, and there are plenty of pretty umbrella girls wandering around! The Redbull truck will have the livestream from the helicopters to watch as well, so you won’t miss out on anything happening on track.
So that’s Pikes Peak in a nutshell! A series of ungodly early mornings, obnoxiously loud racecars ruining an otherwise tranquil natural landscape, unusually cold weather that transitions to unyielding heat, with completely unpredictable weather thrown in for good measure. Even with the hectic scheduling and crazy weather, the race is an utterly unforgettable experience and I encourage everyone to see it at least once. Nowhere else on this planet will you experience a race quite like the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, make sure you see it before you “kick the bucket”.
