Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Pikes Peak: The Most Visited Mountain in North America
Pikes Peak is an amazing backdrop for the town of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It rises from the Rocky Mountains to a height of 14,115 feet above sea level. It is only one out of fifty-three peaks in Colorado that are taller than 14,000 feet. It is the farthest east of the big peaks in the Rocky Mountain chain. It is not the highest, but it is the most popular peak in the nation.
Great forces within the earth's crust pushed the rocks upward through a process called uplifting to create the dome-shaped mountain. It was never a volcano like a few other well-known mountain peaks. Powerful bodies of ice carved out the rock leaving basins and valleys behind.
Pikes Peak was named for the American soldier and explorer, Zebulon Pike. His expedition mapped most of the southwestern part of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike set out to climb the peak in 1806. He was forced back by a blizzard. He never actually made it to the top.
