| Pikes Peak | |
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Pikes Peak, Colorado |
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| Elevation | 14,115 ft (4,302 m) NAVD 88[1] |
| Prominence | 5,510 ft (1,679 m) [2] |
| Listing | Ultra Colorado Fourteener |
| Location | |
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Pikes Peak
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| Location | El Paso County, Colorado, USA near Colorado Springs |
| Range | Front Range |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Topo map | USGS Pikes Peak |
| Geology | |
| Type | granite |
| Age of rock | ~ 1.05 Gyr |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | 1820 - Edwin James and party |
| Easiest route | cog railroad or drive |
Pikes Peak (originally Pike's Peak) is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, 10 miles (16 km) west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County in the United States of America.
Originally called "El Capitan" by Spanish settlers, the mountain was renamed Pike's Peak after Zebulon Pike Jr., an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. At 14,115 feet (4,302 m),[1] it is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners (mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m) above mean sea level). Pikes Peak rises over 8,000 feet above the city of Colorado Springs, and is a designated National Historic Landmark.
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Pikes Peak is the easternmost fourteen thousand foot peak in the United States, located 10 miles (16 km) west of the city of Colorado Springs.
Pikes Peak is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak granite. The color is due to a large amount of potassium feldspar. The granite was once magma that crystallized at least 20 miles (32 km) beneath the Earth's surface, formed by an igneous intrusion during the Precambrian, approximately 1.05 billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny. 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 and weathering removed the soil and rock leaving the exposed mountain.
The first American sighting is often credited to 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:
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 of present-day Denver 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 (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 forty-eight states.
In July 1860, Clark, Gruber and Company commenced minting gold coins in Denver bearing the phrase "Pike's Peak Gold" and an artist's rendering of the peak (site unseen) on the obverse. In 1863 the U.S. Treasury purchased the minting equipment for $25,000 to open the Denver Mint.
In July 1893, Katharine Lee Bates wrote the song "America the Beautiful", 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.
In 1899 Pikes Peak became the location for experiments conducted by the famous electrician and inventor Nikola Tesla. The area was chosen for its remoteness and adjacency to the El Paso Power Company of Colorado Springs. Tesla attempted to send the first radio signal sent from Colorado to Paris, France, but the experiment created havoc and caused the entire city of Colorado Springs to lose power and damaged the El Paso Power Company. Despite this setback Tesla continued his work, eventually returning to New York City in 1900.[4]
The uppermost portion of Pikes Peak (above 14,000 feet (4,300 m) elevation) was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.[5][6]
There are several visitor centers on Pikes Peak, some with a gift shop and restaurant. These centers are located at 6 mile, 12-mile (19 km) and the summit itself, and there are several ways to ascend the mountain. The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway is a cog railroad operating from Manitou Springs to the summit year-round, conditions permitting. Automobiles can be driven to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19 mile (31 km) road that starts a few miles up Ute Pass at Cascade. This road, which was unpaved after the halfway point, was made famous worldwide by the short film Climb Dance featuring Ari Vatanen racing his Peugeot automobile up the steep, twisty slopes as part of the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb race. The road has a series of switchbacks, treacherous at high speed, called "The W's" for their shape on the side of the mountain. The road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs as a toll road.
A project to pave the remainder of the road is scheduled to be completed by 2012. The project is in response to a suit by the Sierra Club over damage caused by the gravel and sediment that is constantly washed off the road into the alpine environment.[7][8] The road remains open during construction. As of September 11, 2011, only 0.7 miles of the road remains unpaved.
The most popular hiking route to the top is called Barr Trail, 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. Runners race to the top and back on Barr Trail in the annual Pikes Peak Marathon. Another route begins at Crags Campground, approaching the summit from the west.[9][10]
Conditions at the top are typical of a high alpine environment. The thin air contains only 60% of the oxygen available at sea level. Snow is a possibility any time year-round, and thunderstorms are common in the summer, bringing hail and wind gusts occasionally of over 100 mph (160 km/h). Since 1969, the summit of Pikes Peak has been the site of the United States Army Pike’s Peak Research Laboratory, a medical research laboratory for the assessment of the impact of high altitude on human physiological and medical parameters of military interest.
Pikes Peak was the home of a ski resort from 1939 until 1984.[11]
The mountain is also the site of the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon foot races on Barr Trail.
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