Pikes Peak Massif

Pikes Peak
Heey-otoyoo’ (Arapaho)
Pikes Peak, Colorado
Highest point
Elevation	14,115 ft (4302.31 m) NAVD88
Prominence	5530 ft (1686 m)
Isolation	60.6 mi (97.6 km)
Listing	North America highest peaks 53rd US highest major peaks 39th US most prominent peaks 89th US most isolated peaks 115th Colorado highest major peaks 20th Colorado fourteeners 30th Colorado county high points 17th
Coordinates	38°50′26″N 105°02′39″W / 38.8405322°N 105.0442048°W / 38.8405322; -105.0442048Coordinates: 38°50′26″N 105°02′39″W / 38.8405322°N 105.0442048°W / 38.8405322; -105.0442048
Geography
Pikes Peak Colorado
Location	High point of El Paso County, Colorado, United States
Parent range	Front Range, Highest summit of the Pikes Peak Massif
Topo map	USGS 7.5' topographic map Pikes Peak, Colorado
Geology
Age of rock	~ 1.05 Gyr
Mountain type	granite
Climbing
First ascent	1820 — Edwin James and party
Easiest route	Barr Trail Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway Pikes Peak Highway

Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in 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, Colorado. 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 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.