PIKES PEAK - AMERICA'S MOUNTAIN 
The most visited mountain in North America and the second most visited mountain in the world behind Japan's Mount Fuji, Pikes Peak forms a stunning backdrop for Colorado Springs and the Garden of the Gods. At an altitude of 14,110 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak is the 31st highest peak out of 54 Colorado peaks. It is the farthest east of the big peaks in the Rocky Mountain chain, which contributed to its early fame among explorers, pioneers and immigrants and made it the symbol of the 1859 Gold Rush to Colorado with the slogan, "Pikes Peak or Bust".
Over a half million people reach the summit house every year by the Pikes Peak Highway, many of whom take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. The 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway, paved part of the way, is open year round, weather permitting. Barr Trail is the longest of any trails leading to the top of the 54 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet, and offers the greatest base-to-summit elevation gain in the state: 7,400 feet. About 15,000 people a year attempt to climb Pikes Peak on foot. The 13-mile trail begins at the base of Pikes Peak in Manitou Springs. The 8.9 mile cog railroad typically operates April through December.
Three notable events take place on the mountain each year. The Pikes Peak Marathon, a 26 mile round trip foot race up Barr Trail and then back down each August, draws thousands of runners from all over the world. The top round trip finishing time is three hours and 16 minutes. The second event, the Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb is a race on the 12.42 mile gravel road which starts around the 6 1/2 mile mark on the highway. Rod Millen from New Zealand holds the fastest time record since 1994, 10 minutes and 4.6 seconds. The third event is the AdAmAn Club New Years Fireworks display on December 31, 12:00 a.m.
Pikes Peak Highway - America's Mountain
Pikes Peak - America's Mountain: The Inspiration for America The Beautiful, Penned by Katharine Lee Bates
In 1893, at the age of thirty-three, Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to teach a short summer school session at Colorado College. Several of the sights on her trip inspired her, and they found their way into her poem, including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the "White City" with its promise of the future contained within its alabaster buildings; the wheat fields of America's heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and the majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Zebulon's Pikes Peak.
On the pinnacle of that mountain, the words of the poem started to come to her, and she wrote them down upon returning to her hotel room at the original Antlers Hotel. The poem was initially published two years later in The Congregationalist, to commemorate the Fourth of July. It quickly caught the public's fancy. Amended versions were published in 1904 and 1913.
Several existing pieces of music were adapted to the poem. A hymn tune composed by Samuel A. Ward was generally considered the best music as early as 1910 and is still the popular tune today. Just as Bates had been inspired to write her poem, Ward too was inspired to compose his tune. The tune came to him while he was on a ferryboat trip from Coney Island back to his home in New York City, after a leisurely summer day in 1882, and he immediately wrote it down. He was so anxious to capture the tune in his head, he asked fellow passenger friend Harry Martin for his shirt cuff to write the tune on, thus perhaps the off the cuff analogy. He composed the tune for the old hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem", retitling the work "Materna". Ward's music combined with Bates' poem were first published together in 1910 and titled, America the Beautiful.
Ward died in 1903, not knowing the national stature his music would attain, as the music was only first applied to the song in 1904. Bates was more fortunate, as the song's popularity was well established by her death in 1929.
At various times in the more than 100 years that have elapsed since the song as we know it was born, particularly during the John F. Kennedy administration, there have been efforts to give "America the Beautiful" legal status either as a national hymn, or as a national anthem equal to, or in place of, "The Star-Spangled Banner", but so far this has not succeeded. Proponents prefer "America the Beautiful" for various reasons, saying it is easier to sing, more melodic, and more adaptable to new orchestrations while still remaining as easily recognizable as "The Star-Spangled Banner." Some prefer "America the Beautiful" over "The Star-Spangled Banner" due to the latter's war-oriented imagery. Others prefer "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the same reason. While that national dichotomy has stymied any effort at changing the tradition of the national anthem, "America the Beautiful" continues to be held in high esteem by a large number of Americans. (source: Wikipedia)
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country lov'd,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
Take Your Time and Enjoy Your Trip On Pikes Peak
Allow at least two hours to make the 38-mile round trip to the summit. Uphill traffic has the right-of-way at all times. Watch for maintenance equipment working on the road, and do not straddle rocks or grader ridges.
Stopping
Whenever possible, use the turnouts provided. If you must stop on the roadway, choose a straight section where your vehicle is clearly visible to the other motorists. If you plan to be away from your vehicle for an extended period, leave a plainly visible note on the windshield saying where you are going and when you will return.
On The Way Up
If your engine begins to labor on steeper grades, shift to a lower gear to maintain speed and engine cooling. Shift your automatic transmission manually to stay in a lower gear. When you reach the summit, run your engine at fast idle for a few minutes to dissipate engine heat.
If You Need Help
Pikes Peak Ranger personnel are on duty and patrol the road at all times when the Highway is open. If you have any kind of trouble, send another motorist for assistance or wait for a Ranger. Stay with your vehicle. Call 719-684-9138 or 1-800-318-9505 to reach a Ranger at the top of Pikes Peak.
On The Way Down
Use your lowest gear to allow your engine to brake your vehicle. Don't ride your brakes; this will cause them to overheat and cause problems. Be Kind To The Mountain
Please avoid polluting streams and reservoirs, and dispose of litter in trash receptacles or vehicle litter bags.
Be Courteous
If you have several vehicles behind you, pull over and allow them to pass. Do not pass on corners. Do not speed. Please Help Prevent Forest Fires.
Fire is the main threat to this watershed, the main source of water for the Colorado Springs area. If you smoke, use your ashtray. Fires are allowed only in designated grills - make sure fires are out before you leave.
Overheating
If your engine overheats, run it at a fast idle. You may wish to run water on the radiator core. Water stations are located approximately 3, 10, 11 and 13 miles past the Gateway.
Health Tips
If you have a history of severe cardiac or respiratory problems, we recommend that you do not make the ascent to the summit. Babies under 4 months of age should not make the ascent, either.
Driving Tips
3 hour round trip
Use lower gears
1/2 tank of fuel
History and Geography of Pikes Peak
History of Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is not a volcano and has never been one. The granite rock of which the mountain is made was once hot molten rock located as deep as 20 miles beneath the earth's surface. The molten rock hardened and cooled below the earth's surface as much as one billion years ago. Great forces within the earth's crust pushed the rocks upward through a process called uplifting which created a dome-shaped mountain covered with a thick layer of soil and softer rock. Erosion and weathering loosened the softer layers and carried them away.
After hundreds of thousands of years of erosion and weathering, a tall granite mountain lay exposed like a large piece of stone waiting for the sculptor to shape it. Anyone seeing this ancient mountain would not have recognized it as the mountain we know today as Pikes Peak. It took the movement of huge glaciers that once existed on the peak to sculpt the mountain. The glaciers lasted about one million years and that ice age ended around 11,000 years ago.
Acting like a giant cookie cutter, the powerful bodies of ice gouged out the rock and left deep, straight-walled basins like the Bottomless Pit with its sharp drop of 1700 feet. The u-shaped canyons that lead down Pikes Peak were carved by the following "rivers of ice". Other v-shaped valleys owe their existence to ordinary streams.
Time Line of Pikes Peak
1803 Pikes Peak area obtained in the Louisiana Purchase
1806 President Jefferson dispatched Zebulon Montgomery Pike to determine the
Louisiana Purchase's southwestern borders. Pike set out to climb the peak on November 24.
1806 from the Pueblo area, but was forced back by a blizzard.
1820 The first recorded ascent was by Dr. Edwin James, doctor, botanist and historian, and two others from an expedition led by Major Stephen H. Long on July 14, 1820. Major Long gave the doctor's name to the mountain, but Pikes Peak soon became the official name, as shown by military maps of 1835.
1850's Pikes Peak was a symbol to the gold seekers heading west. "Pikes Peak or Bust" became their slogan.
1858 The first woman to climb Pikes Peak was Mrs. Julia Archibald Holmes. She made the ascent with the Lawrence party and stayed on top for two days. Mrs. Holmes is also known as the "Bloomer Girl" because of the bloomers she wore while climbing the mountain.
1860 Work began on the Ute Pass wagon road, the first road past Pikes Peak. U.S. Hwy. 24 now follows part of this route.
1871 The settlement of Colorado Springs began.
1873 The Signal Corps of the U.S. Army built a weather station on the summit. This was manned year round until 1889 by a lone enlisted man who was replaced periodically after a short tour of duty. One Sergeant John O'Keefe gained national notoriety through his tall tales about duty on the Peak. The most famous story was about the death of his baby daughter, Erin from an attack by "mountain rats". There was no truth to any of his stories, but they were published all over the country.
1886 - 88 The carriage road to the summit was built.
1889 - 90 The Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railroad was built.
1892 President Harrison established the Pikes Peak Timberland Reserve. Later it became part of the Pike National Forest.
1901 The first automobile to reach the summit (on August 12th) was a two cylinder Locomobile Steamer driven by C.A. Yont and W.B. Felker.
1914 The improvement of the trail up the east face of Pikes Peak was undertaken by Fred Barr and his father. It was completed in December of 1918 and is known as Barr Trail.
1915 Spencer Penrose and his associates conceived the idea of an automobile highway to the summit over the route of the carriage road. This project started early in 1915. The highway cost $500,000.
1916 The first Pikes Peak Hill Climb race was held August 10 - 12 to commemorate the opening of the Pikes Peak Highway. It is the second oldest auto race in the United States (the Indy 500 being the oldest) There are 156 curves on the 12.5 mile course.
1916 - 36 The highway was operated as a toll road at $2.00 per person for twenty years. Because of the tremendous cost of snow removal and maintenance, a profit was never realized. It was turned back to the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1936.
For the next twelve years the road was operated as a free highway but due to the lack of funds, it so deteriorated as to be threatened with complete abandonment.
1948 The Pikes Peak Highway was then set up as a toll road under a permit from the Department of Agriculture. Since June 7, 1948 it has been operated successfully by the City of Colorado Springs.
Source: www.SpringsGov.com
Pikes Peak Country Specifics
Pikes Peak Country is defined as the region around Pikes Peak, America’s Mountain, in southern Colorado. The peak reaches an elevation of 14,115 feet above sea level. At its base are Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs. Cripple Creek and Victor, famous gold camps of the 1800s, are west of Colorado Springs. Canon City, Royal Gorge and the Arkansas River are southwest of Colorado Springs.
About Colorado Springs
Population
City: 414,658 Metro Area: 626,227
Elevation
6,035 feet
Average Annual Precipitation
17.4 inches
Average Humidity
63% morning; 40% afternoon
Average Days of Sunshine Annually
300
Average Annual Snowfall
43 inches
Airport
Colorado Springs Airport | www.Flycos.com
Allegiant Air, American, Continental, Delta, United
Major Highways
Interstate 25, U.S. 85/87 and 24, Colorado 21, 83, 94, 115 and 122