Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The ultra-prominent 14,115-foot (4,302.31 m) fourteener is located in Pike National Forest, 12.0 miles (19.3 km) west by south (bearing 263°) of downtown Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States. The mountain is named in honor of American explorer Zebulon Pike who was unable to reach the summit. The summit is higher than any point in the United States east of its longitude.
Pikes Peak is one of Colorado's 53 fourteeners, mountains that rise more than 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m) above sea level. The mountain rises 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above downtown Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is a designated National Historic Landmark.
"Tava" or “sun,” is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak. The band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the "Tabeguache," meaning the "People of Sun Mountain." The Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A.D., although their traditions say they were created on Pikes Peak. In the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as "Heey-otoyoo’ " meaning "Long Mountain". Early Spanish explorers named the mountain "El Capitán" meaning "The Leader". American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain "Highest Peak" in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as "Pike's Highest Peak". American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain "James Peak" in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit in 1820. The mountain was later renamed "Pike's Peak" in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to "Pikes Peak" by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890.
Pikes Peak may refer to:
Pikes Peak State Park is a state park of Iowa, US, featuring a 500-foot (150 m) bluff overlooking the Upper Mississippi River opposite the confluence of the Wisconsin River. The park is operated by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. It is nearly a thousand acres (4 km²) in extent. The nearest city is McGregor, Iowa. Iowa Highway 76 approximately defines its northern boundary.
It gets its name from the Iowa incarnation of Pikes Peak, a particularly high point overlooking the gorge of the Upper Mississippi, and like Pikes Peak in Colorado, is named for Zebulon Pike.
There are hiking trails, campgrounds and RV facilities. Mountain bikes are permitted in certain portions of the park. Aside from recreational development, the land in the park was never cleared and to a large extent remains as it was before the advent of white settlement.
It is part of a larger complex of parks, reserves and refuges which include Effigy Mounds National Monument, the various components of the Yellow River State Forest, the enormous Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge and much smaller, much less well known Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge. The Northeast Iowa Legacy Trail System is undergoing development, and will connect elements of these sites.
You can dress in camouflage
But that won't help you hide
And you can run, run, run, run
But you can't outrun the tide
You're setting a pattern
That leads to danger
Heading down a path
Where God is a stranger
You can call the shots
You can cast your own lots
And you can stand your ground
You can be your own boss
But it's like driving down Pike's Peak
Ninety miles an hour in the dark
With the headlights off
There's pleasure for a season
But winter's round the bend
It may be like a joyride, yeah
But you know it's going to end
I know it's nice to think
There won't be a backlash
But going that way