Along your way to the top of Pikes Peak you will find rock formations such as the ones demonstrated above. Dating back only 3 million years ago the erosion we see in this photo above was caused by glaciers and the runoff during the Pleistocene Ice age. This erosion is expedited by what is known as “frost wedging.” It is the constant freezing, thawing and refreezing of the water that causes the wedges shown above. What is really interesting is that at the lower elevations you get water that was able to seep deeper into the rock causing the larger pieces of rock. As you reach higher elevations, where the weather is much colder, water is unable to seep as deep and tends to form smaller rock formations as shown below. Along the railway, it was primarily the rocks shown below that made up the last couple thousand feet climb to Pikes Peak.
Source: Pikes Peak. (n.d.). The Geology of Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain. Retrieved October, 24, 2010 from http://www.pikespeak.us.com/Learn/geology.html.
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