BGuthrie Photos: CO -- Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak Highway

CO -- Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak Highway:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. PIKEHW_060528_008.JPG: Crystal Reservoir
2. PIKEHW_060528_019.JPG: A Mountain of Many Names: The Ute Indians say they have always lived in the hills of Colorado. They referred to the Rocky Mountain's easternmost peak as Sun Mountain because it vibrantly catches the early morning rays. In the late 1700s, Spaniards referred to the peak as El Capitan. It was until after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 that the lasting namesake set eyes on the mountain. Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike was dispatched in 1806 to survey the southwest section of that recent purchase. Pike kept a journal detailing his travels and on November 15 he wrote about a mountain or blue cloud in the distance he called Grand Peak. Pike and his men attempted and failed to reach the summit due to a blizzard on November 24, 1806. The first recorded ascent was in 1820 by botanist Dr. Edwin James. The leader of the expedition, Major Stephen H. Long, named the mountain James Peak in his honor. During the 1850s, Pikes Peak became the official name for the mountain. The Pikes Peak or Bust gold rush of 1859 brought thousands of opportunity-seekers to the slopes of the mountain and national notoriety.
3. PIKEHW_060528_020.JPG: The Making of America's Mountain: The granite that makes up Pikes Peak was once molten (or liquid) rock. It slowly cooled and hardened miles beneath the earth's surface, giving the crystals time to grow. Over the last 500 million years, several tectonic plates (the earth's outer layers) have collided and pushed the now-cool granite lying below the surface upward. Around 65 million years ago a tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean was driving into the North American continent. This movement initiated tremendous, mountain-building pressure below what is now Colorado and created Pikes Peak. From two million to 10,000 years ago, a series of Ice Age climates gripped the land. Alpine glaciers formed on Pikes Peak. These rivers of ice gouged bowl-like hollows and U-shaped valleys. Since then, erosion has continued to sculpt the rugged mountain.
4. PIKEHW_060528_025.JPG: Well-traveled Water: Did you know that Colorado Springs is almost a desert? Deserts receive less than ten inches of rain per year. The average precipitation in Colorado Springs is only about 15 inches per year. That's pretty dry compared to Boston's annual 44 inches! With little rainfall and no rivers or large natural lakes in the area, Colorado Springs and the surrounding communities must look to the Colorado mountains for water. Snow falls thickly during winter and spring, providing a pristine water supply to front range cities. To secure clean mountain water, Colorado Springs began its development of water collection and storage on Pikes Peak in 1891. As the region's population grew, the city purchased water rights from resources deeper in the Colorado mountains. In 1935, the Crystal Dam was built, storing 1.1 billion gallons of Blue River water from the Breckinridge area. The water is pumped through more than 70 miles of pipe to get here. The reservoirs of Pikes Peak are open to the public. Visitors and locals alike enjoy fishing and boating from early May to mid-October. Stop in at the Crystal Reservoir Gift Shop for more information.
5. PIKEHW_060528_085.JPG: A Look at the Top: Pikes Peak has four distinct types of vegetation belts: Foothills: 5,400-7,000 feet Montane: 7,000-9,500 feet Subalpine: 9,500-11,500 feet. Alpine: Above 11,500 feet: You have reached the harshest environment on Pikes Peak. Even the trees do not grow here! There are some hardships trees can not endure, like moisture-robbing winds, sub-zero temperatures, massive snow packs, and thin soil. Have you notices any of these alpine hardships today?
6. PIKEHW_060528_097.JPG: Down in the valley, you see three bodies of water. Left to right: North Catamount Reservoir, South Catamount Reservoir, and Crystal Creek Reservoir.
7. PIKEHW_060528_111.JPG: That's Colorado Springs in the distance
8. PIKEHW_060528_121.JPG: Presumably a marmot. You'll see more later.
9. PIKEHW_060528_135.JPG: Note the dust storm in the distance.
10. PIKEHW_060528_146.JPG: In recognition of the notable career of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, soldier, explorer, the people of Colorado have placed this table on the summit of the great mountain first seen by Pike November 15, 1806. General Pike was born at Lamberton, now Trenton, New Jersey, January 5, 1779. Died April 27, 1814, after a victorious attack on York, later Toronto, Canada. Buried at Madison Barracks, New York. This table commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of Pike's southwestern expedition.
11. PIKEHW_060528_164.JPG: You can see the mountains of the Garden of the Gods below
12. PIKEHW_060528_180.JPG: The tracks of the cog railroad. Personally, I'd hate to rely on this to actually stop the train.
13. PIKEHW_060528_189.JPG: A marker to Katharine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to America the Beautiful after visiting the summit. According to the inscription: Commemorating the Centennial of the country's favorite anthem... "America the Beautiful". Katharine Lee Bates conceived the words on July 22, 1893, in Colorado Springs after visiting Pikes Peak that day. She was inspired by the majestic background of the Rocky Mountains and the vast western plains spreading below the 14,110 foot summit.
14. PIKEHW_060528_201.JPG: Colorado Springs
15. PIKEHW_060528_202.JPG: The Continental Divide. The Rocky Mountains are the longest chain of mountains in the world. They divide the United States watershed between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Colorado has 53 peaks over 14,000 peaks, and about 250 peaks over 13,000 feet. One inch on the horizon equals about 38 miles.
16. PIKEHW_060528_235.JPG: Original Summit House. Constructed 1873.
17. PIKEHW_060528_268.JPG: It was really cold up there but people came up with shorts anyway.
18. PIKEHW_060528_433.JPG: Ute Pass Passage from prairie to high plains If you had been standing on this spot for the last 10,000 years, you would have seen the history of Colorado progress below you. This ancient route through the Rocky Mountains is named for Colorado's Ute Indians who made yearly treks down this pass to visit the springs in Manitou and hunt buffalo on the plains. Spanish and American explorers followed the trail. Major Lon's expedition of 1820 stopped for a lunch on bison ribs near the springs at the bottom of the pass. In his diary he noted "a large and frequented road passes the springs and ascends into the mountains." Gold prospectors by the thousands led their burros up the old trail, followed by freighters hauling supplies to the gold camps. Timber cutters, ranchers and the first standard gauge railroad to cross the Rocky Mountains would their way up the pass. El Paso County was named for this important route that would become the first "Ocean to Ocean" Highway. In the resort town of Cascade just below you would have seen the tower of the famous Ramona Hotel, the summer retreat of presidents and politicians. The Cascade Town Company backed by the Colorado Midland Railway helped to build the Carriage Road to the summit of Pike Peak.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Pikes Peak Highway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Pikes Peak Highway is a 19-mile toll road that runs from Cascade, Colorado to the summit house of Pikes Peak in El Paso County, Colorado. It is open year-round, "weather permitting", i.e. when snow removal is not excessively difficult.

The Pikes Peak Highway was constructed in 1915 and financed by Spencer Penrose at a cost of $500,000. However, an earlier road up the mountain, the Pike's Peak Carriage Road, dates back to 1889. The road is maintained by the city of Colorado Springs. The bottom third of this road is paved while the upper portion is gravel. The gravel portion is home to an annual automobile and motorcycle race called the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb.

Litigation was pursued by the Sierra Club, in 1998-1999, on grounds of environmental damage from the gravel portion of the road. Pursuant to the settlement agreed by the Sierra Club and the City of Colorado Springs, the unpaved portion of the Pikes Peak Highway is slated to become a hard-surface road, despite concerns that such a project would radically change the nature of the annual automobile and motorcycle race. Stated completion date for this paving project is 2010.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (CO -- Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak Highway) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 1993_CO_Pikes_Peak_Hwy: CO -- Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak Highway (63 photos from 1993)
- 1971_CO_Pikes_Peak_Hwy: CO -- Colorado Springs -- Pikes Peak Highway (4 photos from 1971)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Natural Beauty] [Park (Local)] [Transportation (Road)] [Vistas]
2006 photos: Equipment this year: I was using all six Fuji cameras at various times -- an S602Zoom, two S7000s,a S5200, an S9000, and an S9100. The majority of pictures this year were taken with the S9000. I have to say, the S7000s was the best camera I've used up to this point.. Trips this year: Florida (two separate trips including Lotusphere and taking care of mom), three weeks out west (including Yellowstone), Williamsburg, San Diego (comic book convention), and Georgia. Number of photos taken this year: 183,000.
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