Mount Evans

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A Trip to Mount Evans...

Mount Evans is just about 1 hr and 30 minutes from Denver. It is located in Idaho Springs, CO in the Arapaho National Forest and Pike National Forest. Mount Evans is one of the "14rs" as they say in Colorado. About 53 mountains in Colorado reach the elevation of 14,000 or higher and Mt. Evans is the 14th highest. It is the highest paved road in American and also one of the closest to Denver which is why we decided to take a trip up. Also starting in October, the road from Summit Lake is closed to the peak.

Our trip to Mt. Evans started early around 8:00 am. When we arrived at the entrance, we were thankful we had left early as it was already starting to get backed up. Weekends tend to be more populated in the tourist areas which is why we will try to plan our trips during the week in the future if possible. After paying our vehicle pass of $15 we started our ascent up to the summit. On the way up we passed Echo Lake and Summit Lake. The road leading up was paved but pretty windy with no guard rails. Jeff said it was one of the scariest roads he has driven.

At the top there were already quite a few people and I think we got the last parking spot available. Not much parking available up there. We took a few pics of the Mount Evans sign and the area near the parking. We also viewed the Bighorn Sheep walking around one of the peaks. From there we hiked another 10 minutes up the trail to the summit to reach the elevation of 14,240 feet. You could definitely feel the elevation in your lungs and the temperature was much cooler. Reaching the top around 10:00 am there were already several people up there and more on their way. We took some pictures and took in the views before we headed back down. From there we drove part way down and found a place to back the truck in and have our tailgate lunch off the back of the truck. A small creature, marmot, was sitting on a rock also checking out the view. It looked sort of like a beaver. (see pic). After lunch we continued our drive down the mountain with a stop at Summit Lake. It was very pretty with the red and yellow/orange ground covering. After getting all my picture taking in we continued down and made one more stop where we were overlooking the tree tops. We didn't do any hiking on this trip but just enjoyed the ride and beautiful scenery.

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