Mount Evans Scenic Byway

This route climbs more than 7,000 feet in just 28 miles, reaching an altitude of 14,264 feet. At the top, the entire Front Range is laid out at your feet. This is the world above timberline: wildflowers, lichens, grasses, pikas, marmots, and mountain goats. This is also an excellent place to find bighorn sheep but be prepared for wind, rain, lightning, hail, and/or snow on any day of the year.

The climbing purists will usually leave their cars at the Echo Lake Trailhead in order to get the required 3,000' minimum elevation gain when heading for Mt. Evans. The rest of us leave our cars at the Summit Lake Trailhead and head out over the Summit Ridge Trail (only 1,800' or so in elevation gain), cross Mt. Spalding (13,842'), then up over the ridge to Evans summit and then back down the northeast face. Unless we want to take a run at one of the Class III or IV routes on the north face...