East Spanish Peak is a high mountain peak in the US state of Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. It is the lower of the two Spanish Peaks

Spanish Peaks

The Spanish Peaks are a pair of volcanic mountains located in southwestern Huerfano County, Colorado. The Ute indians named them Huajatolla , meaning "two breasts". The Spanish name translates as "Breasts of the Earth". The two peaks, West Spanish Peak and East Spanish Peak, are the easternmost...

, two large igneous stock

Intrusion

An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...

s which form an eastern outlier of the Culebra Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Sangre de Cristo Mountains

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States...

.

Geology

While the Spanish Peaks have the appearance of volcanic cones, they are actually stock

Intrusion

An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...

s, remnants of an igneous batholith

Batholith

A batholith is a large emplacement of igneous intrusive rock that forms from cooled magma deep in the Earth's crust...

 which formed underground around 25 million years ago. They are surrounded by radiating dike

Dike (geology)

A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...

s, up to 14 miles (22.5 km) long, made of the same material.

Hiking/climbing

The standard ascent route for East Spanish Peak ascends the west ridge of the peak from the saddle between it and West Spanish Peak. A trail ascends to the saddle from the north side of the peaks.

See also

• Culebra Range
• Mountain peaks of Colorado
  Mountain peaks of Colorado
  This article comprises three sortable tables of the major mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a precise mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface...
  
  
• Mountain peaks of North America
  Mountain peaks of North America
  This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaks of greater North America.This article defines greater North America as the portion of the continental landmass of the Americas extending northward from Panama plus the islands surrounding that landmass...
  
  
• Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains
  Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains
  This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains of North America.Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a precise mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface...
  
  
• Mountain peaks of the United States
  Mountain peaks of the United States
  This article comprises three sortable tables of the major mountain peaks of the United States of America.Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a precise mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface...
  
  
• Mountain ranges of Colorado
  Mountain ranges of Colorado
  The following table lists the major mountain ranges of the U.S. State of Colorado.-Mountain Ranges:-See also:*4000 meter peaks of Colorado*Colorado mountain passes*Geography of Colorado*Lists of mountains*Mountain peaks of Colorado...
  
  
• Sangre de Cristo Mountains
  Sangre de Cristo Mountains
  The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States...
  
  
• Southern Rocky Mountains
  Southern Rocky Mountains
  The Southern Rocky Mountains are a major subregion of the Rocky Mountains of North America located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, the central and western portions of Colorado, the northern portion of New Mexico, and extreme eastern portions of Utah...
  
  
• Spanish Peaks
  Spanish Peaks
  The Spanish Peaks are a pair of volcanic mountains located in southwestern Huerfano County, Colorado. The Ute indians named them Huajatolla , meaning "two breasts". The Spanish name translates as "Breasts of the Earth". The two peaks, West Spanish Peak and East Spanish Peak, are the easternmost...