Rocky Mountains

Pikes Peak Trail

Wildlife Watching in the Shadow of Pikes Peak

Pike’s Peak is quintessential Colorado. The monarch of the Colorado Springs skyline is visible from almost as far away as Kansas. But this trail includes much more than the chance to admire and even drive to the top of “America’s Peak.” It also features one of the most scenic canyon drives in the state, as well as Colorado’s premier migrant trap, a little-visited national monument with an amazing collection of fossils, the internationally renowned Garden of the Gods, and even one of the best reservoirs on the Front Range. Birders will find much to occupy them: Flammulated Owls at the Experimental Forest, Mountain Plovers on the high plains ranches, wintering waterbirds on Big Johnson Reservoir. Visitors to the Pikes Peak area will soon discover that quintessential Colorado is much more than just mountains!