SOUTHERN COLORADO — Thursday's severe weather forced hundreds of people to seek shelter on top of America's Mountain.
For those who didn't have their cars at the top of Pikes Peak they had to hunker down inside the summit house for almost an hour while lightning and hail raged outside.
Dusty Argo said, "We were stuck up there for awhile before they allowed anybody to come back down."
He and Katie Argo are two of the people who had to wait out this intense storm.
Katie Argo said, "The thunder was just so loud so you knew it was really close."
Staff at the mountain took action quickly - telling people to either stay in their cars or in the summit house due to all the lightning and hail. They also shut down the highway for about a half hour.
Manager Jack Glavan said, "We didn't have people going up above the switchbacks because we started seeing the hail and actually accumulating a little bit on the road, and we stopped people from coming down from the summit because the lightning strikes at the summit we're getting pretty close."
Kenny Sefcik, who also made it to the top, said, "We just sat it out in the car. We wanted to stay out of the lightning for sure being that close to it...they did bring a snow plow through to clear all the slush and everything else off the roads."
While people had to wait for the storm to clear and the highway to reopen they made the best of things.
Katie Argo said, "It wasn't really scary. It was just we were more awestruck than anything...we got some of the tasty donuts and shopped around while we were waiting."
Dusty Argo said, "It was still an awesome trip. It was worth it."
Sefcik said, "It was a nice experience and it's beautiful no matter where."
Glavan shared that this is only the second or third time this summer that visitors have been forced to take shelter on top of the mountain. If you are thinking about making a trip up to the peak it's best to go up in the mornings and come back down by early afternoon.
