By admin Colorado celebrated its 150th anniversary on Aug. 1 in innumerable ways, including the ambitious attempt to place around 500 people on the summits of the state’s highest peaks, such as Pikes Peak, near Colorado Springs, and Mount Blue Sky, in Clear Creek County.
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Tribal blessings were offered at Pikes Peak in Ute territory and at Mount Blue Sky, which was renamed in 2023 to remove the name of the disgraced territorial governor whose policies led to the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly women, children and the elderly, in 1864.
Ernest House Jr., an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe who helped organize the ascents by Native American hikers, said the blessing was less about the hiking than about the future. “It’s about the next 150 years, and humanity in general at a 30,000-foot level. How best to do that than at the top of these mountains?”
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Photojournalist Cheney Orr joined the Mount Blue Sky hike, which began around 2 a.m. Here are some of our favorite images from the trip. You can also watch the video on our Instagram.
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