Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak (formerly Pike's Peak, see below) is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, 10 miles (16 km) west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County. It is named for Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. At 14,117 feet (4300 m), it is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners. Pikes Peak has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Geography and geology

Much of the fame of Pikes Peak is due to its location near the eastern edge of the Rockies. Unlike most other similarly tall mountains in Colorado, it serves as a visible landmark for many miles to the east, far into the Great Plains of Colorado. Driving south on Interstate 25 towards the city of Colorado Springs, it comes into view from a distance of more than 130 miles (209 km).

Pikes Peak is made of a characteristic pink granite, called Pikes Peak granite. The pink color is due to a large amount of potassium feldspar. The granite was formed by an igneous intrusion in the Pre-Cambrian age, approximately 1.05 billion years ago, during the Granville orogeny.

Name

During the period of exploration in Colorado, many would refer to the mountain as "Pike's Peak," after Zebulon Pike, the man who first documented it. Later, some suggested "James' Peak," after Edwin James, the man who first climbed it. The name went back and forth until it was settled as the former.

Originally the peak was called "Pike's Peak", but in 1891, the newly-formed US Board on Geographic Names recommended against the use of apostrophes in names, so officially the name of the peak does not include an apostrophe. In addition, in 1978 the Colorado state legislature passed a law mandating the use of "Pikes Peak" only. Even so, the old name is still often seen.

Discovery

The first non-natives to sight Pikes Peak were the members of the Pike expedition, led by Zebulon Pike. After a failed attempt to climb to the top in November 1806, Pike wrote in his journal:

here we found the snow middle deep; no sign of beast or bird inhabiting this region. The thermometer which stood at 9° above 0 at the foot of the mountain, here fell to 4° below 0. The summit of the Grand Peak, which was entirely bare of vegetation and covered with snow, now appeared at the distance of 15 or 16 miles [24–26 km from us, and as high again as what we had ascended, and would have taken a whole day's march to have arrived at its base, when I believed no human being could have ascended to its pinical. This with the condition of my soldiers who had only light overalls on, and no stockings, and every way ill provided to endure the inclemency of the region; the bad prospect of killing any thing to subsist on, with the further detention of two or three days, which it must occasion, determined us to return.

History

The first European to climb the peak came 14 years after Pike in the summer of 1820. Edwin James, a young student who had just graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont, signed on as the relief botanist for the Long Expedition after the first botanist had died. The expedition explored the South Platte River up as far as present-day Denver, then turned south and passed close to what James called "Pike's highest peak." James and two other men left the expedition camped on the plains and climbed the peak in two days, encountering little difficulty. Along the way, he was the first to describe the blue columbine, Colorado's state flower.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1858. Pike's Peak or Bust became the slogan of the Colorado Gold Rush; see also Fifty-Niner. This was more due to Pikes Peak's notoriety than any actual significant gold find anywhere near Pikes Peak. It was not until 1893, when an ancient volcanic caldera on the west slope, five miles wide, was found to have rich gold deposits. This became the Cripple Creek Mining District, and led in 1893 to the last major gold rush in the lower forty-eight states.

In July 1860, Clark, Gruber & Company began minting gold coins in Denver bearing the phrase "Pikes Peak Gold" and an artist's rendering of the peak on the obverse. As the artist had never actually seen the peak, it looks nothing like it. In 1863 the US Treasury purchased their minting equipment for $25,000 to open the Denver Mint.

Katharine Lee Bates was moved to write the words to the song "America the Beautiful" in 1893, after having travelled to the top of Pikes Peak in a carriage ride.

Pikes Peak today

Today there are several ways to ascend Pikes Peak. There is a cog railroad (Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway) which goes from Manitou Springs to the summit of Pikes Peak from April until December. It is the highest cog railroad in the world. You can also drive to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19 mile (31 kilometer) road which starts a few miles up Ute Pass in Cascade and is unpaved after the halfway point. This road is a toll road made famous worldwide by a short film featuring Ari Vatanen driving his Peugeot up the steep, twisty slopes as part of the annual Pikes Peak International Hillclimb race. The road has a series of treacherous switchbacks called "the w's"- which look like two sideways w's on the side of the mountain. This road is maintained by city of Colorado Springs. The most popular hiking route is the Barr Trail, approaching the summit from the east. You can walk, hike, ride a bike, or pursue one of the oddball feats many have accomplished (such as dribble a soccer ball to the top, walk backwards, or push a peanut with your nose up to the top). If you want to run to the top (and back), you can even participate in the annual Pikes Peak Marathon. The trailhead is just past the cog railway depot in Manitou Springs. Another route begins at the Crags Campground, approaching the summit from the west [http://www.onedayhikes.com/Hikes.asp?HikesID=154.

Regardless of how one gets to the top, conditions are not very hospitable. The thin air gives one only 50% of the oxygen available at sea level. Snow is a possibility any time of day or night 12 months a year, and in the summer, thunderstorms are common, bringing "small-pumpkin" sized hail and occasionally 100+ mph (160 km/h+) wind gusts. Lightning is especially dangerous above the treeline.

Pikes Peak was once the home of a ski resort, but ironically, it closed due to a lack of snow. Pikes Peak doesn't receive the massive snowdrops that other mountains do and expensive snowmaking was required to make this resort feasible. Unfortunately, the high winds on Pikes Peak would often blow this artificial snow away ("to Kansas" as one of the former owners of the resort put it).

External links

Satellite Image of Pikes Peak from Google Maps
Pikes Peak page at 14ers.com
Pikes Peak Country Area Attractions - The Official Travel site for Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak Web Ring (Yahoo!)
Pikes Peak on Bivouac.com
Pikes Peak Cog Railway "About Pikes Peak" page
Pikes Peak weather forecast
Pikes Peak Panoramic Camera
Computer generated summit panoramas North South index