Pikes Peak, Colorado, USA
(c) 2000 Andrew Alden, licensed to About.com, Inc. (fair use policy)
Pikes Peak, Colorado, is one of America's most well-known mountains. It's named after the explorer Zebulon Pike, who judged it to be unclimbable. He was wrong, and today a nice paved road takes you all the way up. Travelers crossing the plains in central Colorado would see this peak before any other part of the Rockies, some 50 kilometers away. Today the air is rarely clear enough for that.
This view from the north shows the full length of the mountain, which the Pikes Peak cam sitting in Colorado Springs doesn't do. The road to the top starts up at the west (right) end and winds over the distinctive pink granite flanks on its way to the top. There aren't many mountains that high (4300 meters) you can drive all the way up.
I took this photo in October 1979, when the fields were all golden.
