Colorado has 58 peaks above 14,000 ft. In 2019, due to the serendipitous purchase of a poster listing each one, Kaylee and I set the lifetime goal of hiking all of them. This dream was merely aspirational… until June 26 on Pikes Peak. That is where the rubber hit the road (or the boots hit the trail, I should say). As is becoming our hiking tradition, my trusty sister joined us, and we set out early in the morning from an Airbnb in Colorado Springs to begin the ascent.

Our initial plan was to take on the (in)famous Barr Trail, notable not for any one particularly difficult section but for its grueling length—a round trip of 26 miles. I initially preferred this route because I wanted the challenge and because the other option, via the northwest slopes, seemed to follow the road for a ways (lame!). Thankfully, however, my sister dug a little deeper and discovered some major upsides to the northwest slopes: great views and fewer people. That was enough for me, and we made the switch.

We were on the trail about 6:30 in the morning, starting at an elevation of some 10,000 ft. True to the internet’s word, we saw very few people but many great views as we approached the mountain, rapidly gained elevation to mount the ridge, and began the long haul following that ridgeline all the way to the top. Also true, however, was popping out of the wilderness at Devil’s Playground to a parking lot full of tourists in flip-flops. From there on out (a good two or three miles), the road was never far from sight. And, of course, on the peak itself, there was a visitors’ center, gift shop, crowds of people, and a good deal of construction work.

There was something disconcerting and almost demeaning about toiling and sweating up a rocky slope only to come out into noise and the overwhelming presence of humanity in a place that is usually remote and even sacred. It can be easy to acquire a sense of superiority over those who accomplished by machine what you achieved by your own strength, but I think this should be avoided. “Accessible” nature, whether a few mountaintops with roads or animals in zoos, has a major role to play in conservation. Most Americans will never climb high peaks or go on a safari, but if they can have a slice of the inspiring majesty of earth and appreciate the need to take care of it, that’s worth one afternoon of disturbed mountaintop solitude on my part.

We left the summit a little before 1 pm. We’d taken ample time for photos up to this point, but with clouds on the horizon and afternoon thunderstorms an increasingly likely possibility, we felt an urgency to get below the treeline, some 3-4 miles away and 3,000 ft down. We were blessed, though—although I sometimes saw lightning in the near distance, we had sunshine directly overhead the whole way down (so much so that I got sunburned!). It was refreshing to pass back through Devil’s Playground and regain the wilderness, but those last few miles going down sure felt a lot longer than they had on the way up. We got a little rained on right at the end and were back at the car by 5.

It was a great choice for a first 14er: “America’s mountain,” the inspiration for “America the Beautiful,” a real-life “Lonely Mountain” visible for hundreds of miles. Every time I gaze at it from Kaylee’s parents’ backyard, I can’t help tracing that ridgeline with my eyes and feeling a stab of pride. Only fifty-seven more to go!