Grays Peak Grays Peak Grays Peak is the tenth-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent fourteener is the highest summit of the Front Range and the highest point on the Continental Divide in North America. (There are higher summits, such as Mount Elbert, which are near, but not on, the Divide.) Grays Peak is located in Arapahoe National Forest, southeast by east (bearing 122°) of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties. The peak is the highest point in both counties. Grays Peak is one of 53
Mount Elbert of gneiss and schist. Unlike mountains of similar altitude elsewhere, Elbert lacks both a permanent snowpack and a prominent north-facing cirque, which can be attributed to its position among other mountains of similar height, causing it to receive relatively small quantities of precipitation. Mount Elbert was named by miners in honor of Samuel Hitt Elbert, the governor of the then-Territory of Colorado, because he brokered a treaty in September 1873 with the Ute tribe that opened up more than of reservation land to mining and railroad activity. The first recorded ascent of the peak was by H.W. Stuckle in 1874,