Road to Pikes Peak Unpaved With Ruin

Pikes Peak is being wrecked by the gravel road leading to its summit that 300,000 sightseers use each year, the Sierra Club says. The group is suing Colorado Springs, Colo., and the U.S. Forest Service to force them to pave the 19-mile road. The environmental group says the city is ignoring its own studies and a Forest Service recommendation that the road be paved to reduce damage caused by runoff from the tons of gravel used to maintain it: Trees have been buried, killing them; water from a culvert has cut a deep gully in the hillside. The city says it doesn’t have the $15 million or so to pay for the job but is hiring a consultant to assess the problem.