Mount Blue Sky
Idaho Springs, CO · Front Range
The road up Mount Blue Sky, called Mount Evans until 2023, climbs more than 7,000 feet in 28 miles from Idaho Springs. It ends at 14,130 feet, a short, steep walk below the…
Photo: Ahodges7 / CC BY-SA 3.0
Mountains
Pikes Peak
About
Rising 14,115 feet over Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak is the fourteener that put a phrase in everyone's mouth: Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful after taking in the view from the top in 1893. You can reach the summit three ways, by the cog railway out of Manitou Springs, by the 19-mile toll highway with its switchbacks and famous June hill climb, or on foot up the long grind of Barr Trail. However you get there, the rite of passage is a fresh doughnut at the summit house, where the high-altitude recipe is the only one that comes out right at 14,000 feet.
Highlights
14,115-foot summit, one of Colorado's 54 fourteenersCog railway, the 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway, or Barr Trail to the topThe view that inspired America the BeautifulAnnual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb every JuneHigh-altitude doughnuts at the summit visitor center
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