Pikes Peak is where Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write "America the Beautiful". In 1893 she was lecturing at Colorado College and joined an outing to go to the top of Pikes Peak. They first went in a prairie wagon but near the top had to get out and ride mules the rest of the way. Once on the peak, she was awe struck by the beauty before her and recorded it in her poem, "America the Beautiful"