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Upon traversing the Great Plains, Pike writes, "This vast plains of the western hemisphere may become in time as celebrated as the sandy deserts of Africa; for I saw in my route, in various places, tracts of many leagues where the wind had thrown up the sand in all the fanciful form of the ocean's rolling wave, and on which not a speck of vegetable matter existed."

When Stephen Long leads an expedition to the area in 1820, he will label the area on his map as the "Great American Desert."

On November 15, Pike records the first sight of the distant mountain he calls "Grand Peak".

It has since been called Pikes Peak in his honor.

Zebulon Pike had next intended to travel to the headwaters of the Red River and head downstream to the Mississippi and relative safety in the lowlands, but the company had gotten confused in its bearings, and they had made several blundering steps trying to find the river.

They are not equipped for a mountain expedition, nor for hard winter weather.

Heading north, the party had found the South Fork of the Platte River and, following it upstream, came to what they thought were the headwaters of the Red.

Turning back downstream, they return to the point at which they had left the Arkansas originally.

They have executed a large loop, taking weeks of precious travel time.