At an elevation of 14115 feet, Pikes Peak is the southernmost of Colorado's famous "Fourteeners."

The monolith of rare pink granite juts up out of the Front Range of the Rockies

seven miles west of Colorado Springs.

A natural "weather maker," its unmatched profile protects the city from prevailing winds, and the crags often seem to reach up to snag the rain or snow-soaked clouds and hold them at bay.

Mesmerized by the way the sun played on and over the mountain-particularly at dawn and dusk-

I quickly fell into a love affair with "America's Mountain."

This book is my tribute to Colorado, to Pikes Peak, and to the skies above the Front Range.