Note: This is an Earthcache. There is no physical cache to find. Logging this Earthcache requires that you undertake an educational task relating to the specific Earth Science at the site.
Prior to logging this cache, click on Message this owner, or send an email with answers to the following questions:
Update: The coords used to bring you to a rock and wood Pikes Peak sign for a great photo shoot. It has been removed, so pick any rock to make your observations.
- Pikes Peak Granite is made of feldspar (pink), quartz (white/smoky), and mica (silver/gold/black). Estimate the proportion of each of these components in a piece of Pikes Peak Granite.
- We think of granite as a very hard material. Do you think Pikes Peak Granite is as strong and durable compared to other granite that you’re familiar with?
- Do you think the proportion of the components in this rock causes durability or lack thereof?
- Required to log this cache: Please provide a photo of yourself or a personal item in the picture to prove you visited the site. Upload the photo with your log.
Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak is the most visited mountain in North America and the second most visited mountain in the world behind Japan's Mount Fuji. It is the easternmost peak of the tall mountains in the Rocky Mountain chain. This made it a focal point for the gold rush, and thus the rallying cry “Pikes Peak or Bust.”
Pikes Peak is a small part of a much larger formation known as the Pikes Peak batholith, which is composed of a characteristic pink granite called Pikes Peak Granite. This granite was once hot molten rock located as deep as 20 miles beneath the earth's surface.
Approximately one billion years ago, this huge mass of magma began to pool under what is now central Colorado, forming a 1,300-square-mile batholith. Batholiths are like underground volcanoes, and since the magma is underground, it cools very slowly and turns into granite.
About 60 million years ago, parts of the Western United States were subjected to a series of uplifts that eventually formed the modern Rocky Mountains and raised Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak, like other portions of the Colorado Rockies, is still being uplifted today as a part of larger tectonic processes.
Due to the generally fine-crystalline nature of Pikes Peak Granite, it typically forms smooth and rounded boulders, and erodes into granite gravel. The pink-colored Pikes Peak Granite has many joints and fractures. Water gets into cracks in the rocks and it easily crumbles into gravel. When the water freezes, it expands and forces the cracks to open wider. For millions of years this freezing and thawing of water has caused the Pikes Peak Granite to shatter in slow motion.
The three most noticeable materials of Pikes Peak Granite are the milky/smoky quartz, the pink feldspar and the silver/golden/black mica. Feldspar and mica weather easily. Quartz is a harder, more durable material.
There are several ways to reach the summit. You can drive if you're brave enough. Be sure to call first so you won't be disappointed if they're closed for a weather event, or other event like a race. Another option is to use the Cog Railway, though your time at the summit will be more limited. If you're a hiker, there's always that option as well. The 13-mile Barr Trail is the longest of any of the trails leading to the top of the 54 mountains in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet. The base-to-summit elevation gain is 7,400 feet.
They have now instituted a reservation system to drive to the summit. Check their website for details: https://coloradosprings.gov/drivepikespeak
Whichever option you chose, I highly advise you to check their website or call before you head up there.
At 14,000 feet, the oxygen level is only 60% of that at sea level, so a faster rate of respiration is required. Altitude sickness may develop in those who are sensitive or who over-exert themselves. Follow the recommended procedures for adjusting to the extreme change in altitude.
