Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway

A National Forest Scenic Byway Climbing To 14,130 Feet On Mount Blue Sky The Highest Paved Road In North America. The Mountain Was Renamed From Mount Evans In 2023 At The Request Of The Cheyenne And Arapaho Tribes. · Idaho Springs, Colorado

The road to the top of Mount Blue Sky is the highest paved road in North America, finishing at fourteen thousand one hundred and thirty feet on a summit that is a short walk above the car park. It was built between 1923 and 1930 as a piece of Denver boosterism - the city wanted a fourteener anyone could drive up - and it delivers exactly that: bristlecone pines a thousand years old on the lower slopes, mountain goats and bighorn sheep on the switchbacks, alpine tundra for the last several miles, and a view that on a clear morning runs to the Continental Divide in one direction and the plains in the other. The mountain was renamed from Mount Evans in 2023 at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, after the governor whose name it carried ordered the Sand Creek Massacre. The upper road is open for only a few months a year, needs a timed-entry reservation, and has been shut for reconstruction in recent seasons - so summit access is the one thing to confirm before setting out.

Colorado Highway 5 from Echo Lake, Arapaho National Forest, Idaho Springs, Colorado, 80452, United States

STRONGLY SEASONAL AND INCREASINGLY MANAGED. The upper road is closed by snow for most of the year and typically opens around Memorial Day and closes in September, with the exact dates set by conditions. TIMED-ENTRY RESERVATIONS are required in season. The road has also been subject to major reconstruction with extended closures of the upper section in recent years, so summit access cannot be assumed. CONFIRM BEFORE TRAVELLING - this is the row in this batch most likely to disappoint.

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