Peaks Peak - Colorado

About Pikes Peak

Towering to a height of 14,110-feet, Pikes Peak is located on the front range of the Rocky Mountains, fourteen miles west of Colorado Springs. If features the largest elevation gain of any mountain in Colorado, rising 7,800 vertical feet in 7.25 horizontal miles. Originally named "Grand Peak", it was later renamed "Pikes Peak" shortly after its discovery by Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike in 1806. The mountain was first ascended in 1820, by botanist Edwin James and by the mid-1820, by botanist Edwin James and by the mid-1800's a trail to the top had been well established. When Katherine Lee bates climbed the peak in 1893, the awesome view inspired her to write the ageless classic "America the Beautiful". Today the summit can be reached by railway, road or on foot.

Shown below, we were passengers on the world's highest cog railway that operates from Manitou Springs, Colorado, 6571 feet to summit of Pikes Peak, 14,110 feet.

Traveling up Pikes Peak on the Cog Railway	Sonson, Shermie's Son, Jill & Shermie
Shermie & Jill at the top of Pikes Peak	14,110 ft. - Pikes Peak
A view from the top of Pikes Peak - Garden of the Gods	A close up of the area in the box