The mountain was named in honor of explorer Stephen Harriman Long and is featured on the Colorado state quarter.

The peak is named for Major Stephen Harriman Long,[8][9] who is said to have been the first to spot the Front Range on June 30, 1820, during an expedition on behalf of the U.S. government.

[11] Isabella L Bird also recounts an ascent in the 1870s in one of her letters (A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains) The East Face of the mountain is 1,675 feet, steep, and surmounted by a 1,000 feet steep sheer cliff known as "The Diamond"[9] (so-named because of its shape, approximately that of a cut diamond seen from the side and inverted).

Another famous profile belongs to Longs Peak: to the southeast of the summit is a series of rises which, when viewed from the northeast, resembles a beaver.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Blaurock) In 1954 the first proposal made to the National Park Service to climb The Diamond was met with an official closure, a stance not changed until 1960.

This route would later be listed in Allen Steck and Steve Roper's influential book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.

Only some technical climbing is required to reach the summit of Longs Peak during the summer season, which typically runs from mid July through early September.

Most hikers begin before dawn in order to reach the summit and return below the tree line before frequent afternoon thunderstorms bring a risk of lightning strikes.

Just beyond the Narrows, the Notch signifies the beginning of the Homestretch, a steep climb to the football field-sized, flat summit.

It is also rewarding to hike just to the Boulder Field, the Keyhole, or the seldom-visited Chasm View—the ridge between Mount Lady Washington and the east face of Longs Peak.

Technical climbers, with the correct permit, are allowed to use sites at the base of the East Face and at Chasm View.

Some of the more common routes are, in approximate order of popularity, Longs Peak is described in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon as the location of a 16 feet (192-inch) reflecting telescope called "the Telescope of the Rocky Mountains", built for the purpose of tracking the Columbiad projectile on her flight to the Moon.