Pikes Peak, Colorado

The poem Katherine Lee Bates wrote on a visit to the summit in 1893 included the phrase "purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain," which, when set to music in 1913 became "America The Beautiful," our cherished unofficial national anthem. Pikes Peak crests at 14,110 granite feet and was named for Zebulon Pike, an 1806 survey expedition leader sent by Thomas Jefferson, who was unable to scale the mountain — pronouncing it "impossible."