Pikes Peak is the
highest summit of the southern
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountere ...
of the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
, in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. The
ultra-prominent
An ultra-prominent peak, or Ultra for short, is a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of or more; it is also called a P1500.
The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or fr ...
fourteener
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any single ...
is located in
Pike National Forest
The Pike National Forest is located in the Front Range of Colorado, United States, west of Colorado Springs including Pikes Peak. The forest encompasses 1,106,604 acres (4,478 km2) within Clear Creek, Teller, Park, Jefferson, Douglas and E ...
, west of downtown
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
. The town of
Manitou Springs
Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers ...
lies at its base.
The mountain is named in honor of American explorer
Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...
(though he was unable to reach the summit). The summit is higher than any point in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
east of its
longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
.
[
]
Name
The band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the Tabeguache
The Uncompahgre Ute () or ꞌAkaꞌ-páa-gharʉrʉ Núuchi (also: Ahkawa Pahgaha Nooch) is a band of the Ute, a Native American tribe located in the US states of Colorado and Utah. In the Ute language, means "rocks that make water red." The band ...
, whose name means the "People of Sun Mountain". or "sun", is the Ute
Ute or UTE may refer to:
* Ute (band), an Australian jazz group
* Ute (given name)
* ''Ute'' (sponge), a sponge genus
* Ute (vehicle), an Australian and New Zealand term for certain utility vehicles
* Ute, Iowa, a city in Monona County along ...
word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak. It is thought that the Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A.D., however their oral history states that they were created on Tava. In the 1800s, when the Arapaho people
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho band ...
arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as meaning "Long Mountain".
Throughout its history, European peoples have called the mountain El Capitán, Grand Peak, Great Peak, James Peak, Long Mountain, and Pike's Peak.[
Early Spanish explorers named the mountain "El Capitán," meaning "The Leader". American explorer ]Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...
named the mountain "Highest Peak" in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as "Pike's Highest Peak." American explorer Stephen Harriman Long
Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...
named the mountain "James Peak" in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit during Long's Expedition of 1820
The Stephen H. Long Expedition of 1820 traversed America's Great Plains and up to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was the first scientific party hired by the United States government to explore the West. Lewis and Clark (1803–1806) a ...
. The mountain was later renamed "Pike's Peak" in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to "Pikes Peak" by the United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...
in 1890.
Geography and geology
Pikes Peak is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least . The 96 fourteeners in the United States are all west of the Mississippi River. Colorado has the most (53) of any single ...
, mountains more than above sea level. The massif
In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...
rises above downtown Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
. It is composed of a characteristic pink granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
called Pikes Peak granite. The color is due to a large amount of potassium feldspar Potassium feldspar refers to a number of minerals in the feldspar group, and containing potassium:
*Orthoclase (endmember formula K Al Si3 O8), an important tectosilicate mineral that forms igneous rock
*Microcline, chemically the same as orthoclas ...
.
It is thought that the granite was once magma
Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
that crystallized at least beneath the Earth's surface, formed by an igneous intrusion during the Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
, approximately 1.05 billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny
The Grenville orogeny was a long-lived Mesoproterozoic mountain-building event associated with the assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia. Its record is a prominent orogenic belt which spans a significant portion of the North American continent, ...
. Through the process of uplifting, the hardened rock pushed through the Earth's crust and created a dome-like mountain, covered with less resistant rock. Years of erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
and weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement), ...
removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain.
Soils on Pikes Peak above the timberline (approximately ) are classified as ''Cirque land''. Forests at lower altitudes mostly lie over the brown stony, sandy, loams of the ''Catamount loam'' or ''Ivywild loam'' series.
Devils Playground
The Devils Playground is a minor subpeak of Pikes Peak located on the northwest side of the mountain near the Pikes Peak Highway
The Pikes Peak Highway is a toll road that runs from Cascade, Colorado to the summit of Pikes Peak in El Paso County, at an altitude of . It is at least partially open year-round, up to the altitude where snow removal becomes excessively di ...
. The Devils Playground is named for the way lightning sometimes dances around the prominence during lightning storms. The Devils Playground is the highest point in Teller County at an approximate elevation of .
Recorded discovery
The first Europeans to see Pikes Peak were the Spanish in the 1700s. The first American sighting is often credited to members of the Pike Expedition
The Pike Expedition (July 15, 1806 – July 1, 1807) was a military party sent out by President Thomas Jefferson and authorized by the United States government to explore the south and west of the recent Louisiana Purchase.Berry, Trey; Pam ...
, led by Zebulon Pike
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813) was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado was named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions under authority of President Thomas Jefferson th ...
. 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 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 pinnacle. 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 anything to subsist on, with the further detention of two or three days, which it must occasion, determined us to return.
History
The first European-American 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
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
in Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, signed on as the relief botanist for Stephen Harriman Long
Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864) was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most pro ...
's expedition after the first botanist had died. The expedition explored the South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwestern United States, Midwest and the American Sout ...
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, James was the first to describe the blue columbine, Colorado's state flower.
Gold was discovered in the area of present-day Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
in 1858, and newspapers referred to the gold-mining area as "Pike's Peak". ''Pike's Peak or Bust'' became the slogan of the Colorado Gold Rush
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 a ...
(see also Fifty-Niner). This was more due to Pikes Peak's visibility to gold seekers traveling west across the plains than any actual significant gold find anywhere near Pikes Peak. Major gold deposits were not discovered in the Pikes Peak area until the Cripple Creek Mining District was discovered southwest of Pikes Peak and led, in 1893, to one of the last major gold rushes in the lower 48 states.
In July 1860, Clark, Gruber and Company commenced minting gold coins in Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
bearing the phrase "Pike's Peak Gold" and an artist's rendering of the peak (sight unseen) on the obverse
Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''o ...
. In 1863, the U.S. Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
purchased the minting equipment for $25,000 (or $ adjusted for inflation) to open the Denver Mint
The Denver Mint is a branch of the United States Mint that struck its first coins on February 1, 1906. The mint is still operating and producing coins for circulation, as well as mint sets and commemorative coins. Coins produced at the Denver Min ...
.
Julia Archibald Holmes
Julia Annie Archibald Holmes (February 15, 1838 – January 19, 1887) was an American suffragist, abolitionist, mountaineer and journalist.
Biography
Holmes was born in 1838 in Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, and moved to Massachusetts with her ...
and James Holmes traveled to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in 1858, and reached the summit on August 5, with J. D. Miller and George Peck, making Archibald Holmes the first European-American woman to climb Pikes Peak. From the summit, she wrote in a letter to her mother: "Nearly everyone tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed; and now here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all."
Thirty-five years later, in July 1893, Katharine Lee Bates
Katharine Lee Bates (August 12, 1859 – March 28, 1929) was an American author and poet, chiefly remembered for her anthem "America the Beautiful", but also for her many books and articles on social reform, on which she was a noted speaker.
Bat ...
wrote the song "America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is a patriotic American song. Its lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The two never m ...
", after having admired the view from the top of Pikes Peak. It appeared in print in ''The Congregationalist'', a weekly journal, on July 4, 1895. A plaque commemorating the words to the song was placed at the summit.
On July 17, 1913 William Wayne Brown drove his car, the ''Bear Cat'', to the summit. The ascent took 5 hours and 28 minutes.
The uppermost portion of Pikes Peak, above 14,000 feet (4,267 m) elevation, was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1961.[ and ]
Pikes Peak was the home of a ski resort from 1939 until 1984.
Today
There are several visitor centers on Pikes Peak, some with a gift shop and restaurant. These centers are located at the and markers of the toll road, plus one at the summit itself.
Along with other food, the Summit House sells special high altitude doughnut
A doughnut or donut () is a type of food made from leavened fried dough. It is popular in many countries and is prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franc ...
s, frying up to 700 per hour. The doughnuts collapse or go mushy if transported to lower altitudes.
There are several ways to ascend the mountain. The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway
The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway (also known as the Pikes Peak Cog Railway) is a cog railway that climbs one of the most iconic mountains in the United States, Pikes Peak in Colorado. The base station is in Manitou Springs, near ...
, the world's highest cog railroad, operated from Manitou Springs
Manitou Springs is a home rule municipality located at the foot of Pikes Peak in western El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded for its natural mineral springs. The downtown area continues to be of interest to travelers ...
to the summit, but closed for repairs in 2017. But after over three years of being closed, the cog railway resumed service seven days a week (conditions permitting) on May 27, 2021.
Road vehicles can be driven to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway
The Pikes Peak Highway is a toll road that runs from Cascade, Colorado to the summit of Pikes Peak in El Paso County, at an altitude of . It is at least partially open year-round, up to the altitude where snow removal becomes excessively di ...
, a road that starts a few miles up Ute Pass Ute Pass may refer to:
* Ute Pass (Medicine Bow Mountains), a mountain pass in the Medicine Bow Mountains of Colorado, United States.
* Ute Pass (Park Range), a mountain pass on the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Park Range of Colorad ...
at Cascade
Cascade, Cascades or Cascading may refer to:
Science and technology Science
*Cascade waterfalls, or series of waterfalls
* Cascade, the CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (a protein complex)
* Cascade (grape), a type of fruit
* Bioc ...
. The road has a series of switchbacks, treacherous at high speed, called "The W's" for their shape on the northwest side of the mountain. The road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
as a toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...
. A project to pave the remainder of the road was completed on October 1, 2011. The project is in response to a suit by the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...
over damage caused by the gravel and sediment that is constantly washed off the road into the alpine environment. The road remained open during construction.
The Highway is famous worldwide for the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures and has over 156 turns, climbing from the sta ...
, a motor race held since 1916. The short film ''Climb Dance
''Climb Dance'' is a famous cinéma vérité short film, which features Finnish rally driver Ari Vatanen setting a record time in the highly modified four-wheel drive, all-wheel steering Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 at the 1988 Pikes Peak International H ...
'' features Ari Vatanen
Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen (; born 27 April 1952) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1999 to 2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally ...
racing his Peugeot
Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis.
The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and the ...
automobile up the steep, twisty slopes. It also hosts the Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb (formerly Assault on the Peak), a cycling hillclimb race first held in 2010, and the USA Cycling Hill Climb National Championships, a race first held in 2016.
The most popular hiking route to the top is called Barr Trail
Barr Trail is a trail in the Pike National Forest that begins in Manitou Springs, Colorado and ends at the Pikes Peak summit. The high elevation trail with a long sustained grade is rated more difficult by the U.S. Forest Service. With a elev ...
, which approaches the summit from the east. The trailhead is just past the cog railway depot in Manitou Springs. Visitors can walk, hike, or bike the trail. Although the Barr Trail is rated only Class 1, it is a long and arduous hike with nearly of elevation gain, and a trip one-way. The Pikes Peak Marathon
The Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon is a trail running competition that begins at the base of Pikes Peak, in Manitou Springs, Colorado, and climbs over 7,815 feet (2382 m) to the top of the 14,115 foot (4302 m) peak. Since 1956, the event takes p ...
, a trail race held since 1956, is a round trip between the trailhead and the Pikes Peak. The Barr Trail Mountain Race is a round trip between the trailhead and Barr Camp. Another route begins at Crags Campground, approaching the summit from the west.
Barr Trail can also be accessed via the Manitou Incline
The Manitou Springs Incline, also known as the Manitou Incline or simply the Incline, is a popular hiking trail rising above Manitou Springs, Colorado, near Colorado Springs. The Incline ascends on the east slope of Rocky Mountain which is itself ...
.
Since the end of 1922, the AdAmAn Club, a mountaineering group, climb the Barr Trail on the east face of Pikes Peak each year on December 30th, stay overnight at Barr Camp, and continue to the top on December 31. Then, at midnight on New Year's Eve, the AdAmAn members and their guests ignite a fireworks display from the summit.
Since 1969, the summit of Pikes Peak has been the site of the United States Army Pikes Peak Research Laboratory
The U.S. Army Pikes Peak Research Laboratory, or simply the "Pikes Peak Lab", is a modern medical research laboratory for the assessment of the impact of high altitude on human physiological and medical parameters of military interest. It is a sa ...
, a medical research laboratory for the assessment of the impact of high altitude on human physiological and medical parameters of military interest.
On June 4, 2018, ground-breaking was held for a new Summit Complex which is being constructed next to the current Summit House. The older facility will remain open to the more than 600,000 visitors annually through the end of construction in the fall of 2020 or summer of 2021. Around 40 contractors are working on the $50 million project. The general contractor, G.E. Johnson Construction Co., estimates that about half of the budget is for materials, many of which are prefabricated
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...
in downslope shops, and the balance is for labor, because of the project's high standards and the rigors of working for a maximum of hours per day at such a high altitude during a short season of April to October. Heavy equipment and prefabricated building components are slowly moved up the mountain's highway in the middle of the night to avoid any car traffic. Ground conditions are bedrock and alpine permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
, soil and rock that remains at or below freezing temperatures all year to depths of up to , only warming above freezing in direct sunlight or due to external sources. Problems with excavation and blasting exist because the permafrost in the fractured granite actually absorbs energy. The project is being constructed to achieve both Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification and Living Building Challenge
The Living Building Challenge is an international sustainable building certification program created in 2006 by the non-profit International Living Future Institute. It is described by the Institute as a philosophy, advocacy tool and certification ...
. The new complex will include a visitor center, a communications facility for Colorado Springs Utilities, and the Army's High-Altitude Research Laboratory.
Climate
At the peak, the partial pressure
In a mixture of gases, each constituent gas has a partial pressure which is the notional pressure of that constituent gas as if it alone occupied the entire volume of the original mixture at the same temperature. The total pressure of an ideal gas ...
of oxygen is only about 60% of that at sea level. Water boils at at 14,000 feet, rather than at sea level.
A faster rate of respiration is required by humans and animals not acclimated to high altitudes. Altitude sickness
Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is the harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Sympt ...
may develop in those who are sensitive or who over-exert themselves.
The summit of Pikes Peak has a polar climate
The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month in a polar climate has an average temperature of less than . Regions with polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area. Most of ...
( ET) due to its elevation. Snow is a possibility any time year-round, and thunderstorms with high winds gusting up to or more are common in the afternoons.
Surrounding areas have different climatic variations depending on location and elevation. Much of the area near Pikes Peak has a continental semiarid climate, while other areas would be classified as hemiboreal
Hemiboreal means halfway between the temperate and subarctic (or boreal) zones. The term is most frequently used in the context of climates and ecosystems.
Botany
A hemiboreal forest has some characteristics of a boreal forest to the north, and ...
.
See also
*List of mountain peaks of North America
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence. All ...
**List of mountain peaks of the United States
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a major summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence. All su ...
***List of mountain peaks of Colorado
This is a list of major mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado.
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a m ...
****List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ...
****List of Colorado fourteeners
This is a list of mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado that exceed of elevation.
In the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a ''fourteener'' is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. This is a c ...
*List of Ultras of the United States
The following sortable table comprises the 200 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the United States of America.
The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways:
#The topographic elevation of a summit me ...
*Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures and has over 156 turns, climbing from the sta ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of El Paso County, Colorado
Pike National Forest
Fourteeners of Colorado
North American 4000 m summits
National Historic Landmarks in Colorado
National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Natural features on the National Register of Historic Places
Tourist attractions in El Paso County, Colorado