Pikes Peak Colorado Springs

Jake was in Colorado Springs this week. When he left Alabama, it was 80 degrees. When he arrived in Colorado, it was 25 degrees and there was a blizzard taking place.

In this photo, you can see Pikes Peak in the background. Pikes 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. It is named for Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. 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.

There is a visitor center with a gift shop and restaurant on the summit of Pikes Peak, 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 kilometer) road which starts a few miles up Ute Pass at Cascade. 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.

Check out Pike's Peak on this map of places we've been.

Other Colorado Springs Destinations

• Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway (Colorado Springs)
• Garden Of The Gods (Colorado Springs)
  
• Manitou Springs (Manitou Springs)
  
• Mount Cutler Hiking Trail (Colorado Springs)
• Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs)
• Ghost Town Museum (Colorado Springs)
  
• Helen Hunt Falls (Colorado Springs)
• Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (Colorado Springs)