Pikes Peak

In 1893 a young English professor named Katharine Lee Bates rode to the summit of Pikes Peak, and the sweeping view of the plains, mountains, and sky moved her so deeply that she jotted down the lines of a poem. Those lines became America the Beautiful, one of the nation's most beloved songs, and the words about spacious skies and purple mountain majesties were born of this very summit.

The mountain carries the name of Zebulon Pike, an army explorer who sighted it in 1806 and tried but failed to climb it in deep snow. To the Ute people, whose homeland this region is, and to other Native peoples, the mountain long held its own names and meaning, and it stood as a landmark on the land long before any explorer arrived.

In 1858 gold was discovered in the Colorado region, and the rush that followed took Pikes Peak as its rallying cry. Fortune seekers painted Pikes Peak or Bust on their wagons and streamed toward the mountains, even though most of the gold was found well north of the peak itself. The mountain became the emblem of the whole boom that opened Colorado to settlement.

That surge of people gave rise to towns at the mountain's foot, including Colorado Springs and the mining and mineral-springs town of Manitou Springs. The peak has drawn adventurers ever since, from the builders of the cog railway in the 1890s to the racers who tackle the famous hill climb up the highway, a storied automobile and motorcycle race to the summit.

There are three classic ways to reach the summit of Pikes Peak. The Pikes Peak Highway winds up the mountain in a long series of switchbacks, letting drivers ascend at their own pace with pullouts for the views. The historic cog railway climbs the mountain on a toothed track, one of the highest such railways in the world, carrying passengers to the top through changing life zones.

For those who want to earn it, the Barr Trail climbs from Manitou Springs all the way to the summit, a long and demanding hike that gains enormous elevation and is a proud accomplishment for many Colorado hikers. However you reach it, the summit rewards you with a stunning panorama and, thanks to the modern summit visitor center, a warm place to catch your breath in the thin air.

Climbing Pikes Peak carries you through a stack of life zones, from ponderosa forest at the base up through spruce and fir, past the twisted, wind-stunted trees at timberline, and finally into the treeless alpine tundra of the summit, where tiny wildflowers cling to the rock in summer. Bighorn sheep, marmots, and pikas live on the high slopes, and the tundra is a fragile world all its own.

Summer is the main season, when the highway and railway run at full swing, but even then the summit can be cold, windy, and stormy, and afternoon thunderstorms make an early ascent wise. Fall brings crisp air and golden aspens on the lower flanks. Winter buries the peak in snow and cold, and while access is more limited, the snow-capped mountain glowing above the plains is an unforgettable sight.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.