Just imagine, driving on the Highest Paved Road in North America! At 14,130 feet in the air, You’re on Top of the World! This is Colorado’s famous Mount Evans (now called Mount Blue Sky) and the unforgettable Mount Evans Scenic Byway!
This sounds exciting, right? Well, it was, but then again it wasn’t as wonderful for our family as we were hoping it would be.
To sum up our experience I will use a quote from our youngest who was five years old. “Thank you for taking us up Mommy, but then again thank you for bringing us down quickly.”
In this post I want to share with you all of the great things about this spectacular drive up Mount Evans, but I also want to let you know what to watch out for as well so that you can have a better experience than we did.
Update:
As of March 2022, Mount Evans was voted to be renamed Mount Blue Sky to honor the Indigenous people of Colorado.
ALERT: Starting September 6th, Mt. Evans (Hwy 5) will be open from mile 1 (Echo Lake) to mile 9 (Summit Lake). The top portion will be closed for the season from mile 9 to mile 14 to all motor vehicles. At this time, visitors can visit these sites by motorized vehicle: Mt. Goliath Nature Center (mile 3) and Summit Lake Park (mile 9). Mt. Goliath and Summit Lake Park Ticket will be the only available ticket at the time until we close for the season.
Mount Evans Scenic Byway Drive
(up Mount Blue Sky)
To begin this epic Mount Evans drive you will want to head west out of Denver to the town of Idaho Springs. It is from this town that you will get onto, CO-103. This starts the Mount Evans Scenic Byway.
Traveler Tip: Before you plan on taking this epic drive, please check the website for current information.
Find Up to Date Timed-Entry Vehicle Ticket Information Here.
CO-103 is a spectacular section of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway. Beautiful evergreen forests line your path for mile upon mile. Your excitement will begin to climb as you start driving up the mountain side of Mount Evans. I was loving this first portion of the drive!
Echo Lake
13 miles after leaving Idaho Springs, after ~25 minutes of driving, you will see the stunning Echo Lake come into view right beside the road. I highly recommend stopping here for a little at this pristine mountain lake to stretch your legs and enjoy the scenery. There is an easy 1/4 mile beautiful hike around the lake that you can walk or you can simply just stand here and admire the gorgeous view.
Once you leave Echo Lake, you will turn right and begin driving onto Mount Evans Road right past Echo Lake Lodge.
From here it is 15 miles to the top.
Fun Fact
In just 28 miles you will climb over 7,000 feet!
An Exciting Find in July!
So I know this won’t be exciting to most people, but for Floridians like us, seeing snow (yes, even side of the road dirty snow) is an incredible highlight! And this was July!! So if you are a family that’s looking to find snow in the summer, you may get to see some here on this Mount Evans drive!
Mount Evans Scenic Byway Begins to Change as We Climb
The Mount Evans Scenic Byway changes as you climb higher and higher. You will soon find yourself above the tree line. The scenery is now much rockier and harsher, but the view in the distance is fantastic!
It is at this point, at around 10,000 feet up, that we came upon another car with their hood up that needed help. Evidently they had been sitting there for a while, needed a jump, and no one had stopped to help them! They told us that some people had even waved at them while they passed by. Just imagine being stranded at the top of a mountain with no one stopping to help! We just couldn’t believe it!
Traveler Tip:
We always travel with this Portable Power Bank Charger with Jumper Cables, and therefore we were able to easily jump start their car and help them out. We absolutely love this compact charger because with it, you can also jump start your own car by yourself, in case you’re out exploring and there’s no one around to help.
It can be a true life saver!
While my husband was jumping their car, we noticed this little guy sitting not too far off the road beside us! We hadn’t noticed him before and probably would have passed right by if we hadn’t stopped to help this family.
After we jumped their car, they began their journey down the mountain and we continued on up. The road began changing yet again.
Now personally, mountain roads don’t bother me at all, but I can definitely see how this road could be incredibly scary to some people.
To be honest, I never felt unsafe on this road, and I actually think these pictures make it seem scarier than I ever felt. But please be aware that this is what they look like, especially if you are traveling with someone that is very nervous on mountain roads. We also were making this Mount Evans drive on a nice, sunny day. If the weather had been bad then I probably would have felt very differently.
Please note also that it is nearly impossible to turn around on this portion of the road so take note of the weather before you start driving up to the top.
The Not-So-Great Part of our Mount Evans Scenic Byway Drive Begins
We arrived at the top! 14,130 feet!
To anyone that just briefly looks at this picture, they will probably see a great, happy family picture on a spectacular day on the top of Mount Evans.
This was not the case for us. The second we stepped out of our car, a cold, strong wind hit us and didn’t let up. Only moments before we had barely needed jackets, and now at the top I couldn’t stop my teeth from chattering from the cold. The thermometer said it was 45 degrees but the wind made it feel much, much colder (and this was July!) So make sure you bring layers! You will need them!
And what was crazier was that the mountain goats were shedding their winter coat!
They must have some crazy super power to withstand this cold!
Altitude Issues
The other issue we had at the top of Mount Evans was the altitude and thinness of the air. I had never in my life had a problem on top of mountains at 14,000 feet, but I did today. Immediately I was light-headed and dizzy and so were two of my children. I think you can guess which two kids were not doing well from the picture above by the Mount Evans sign. My middle child even started getting nauseous and turning a shade of green which told me that we needed to head back down right away.
Side Note: We are from Florida and live at sea level. We had been at 4-5,000 feet elevation for a few days on our vacation and I thought we were well hydrated, but for some reason the change in altitude did not sit well with us this time. I, myself, didn’t notice any problem when we were walking around at a lookout at 10,000 feet. It was those last 4,000 feet that seemed to effect us the most. I fear that we did not give our bodies enough time to adjust to Denver’s 5,000 feet of altitude, let alone the 14,000 feet plus of Mount Evans that we drove up to in one hour. So my advice is to please take any necessary precautions concerning altitude before you drive this spectacular road. Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy the top more than we did.
On the positive side, the scenery on top of Mount Evans is spectacular!
As it turned out, we were only at the top of Mount Evans for a grand total of six minutes! This is not a lot of time, considering that it takes over an hour to drive up and over another hour to drive back down. But this is one of those times that, it is what it is, and so we began our drive back down the Mount Evans Scenic Byway.
Traveler Tip: There is a restroom at the top but no food or water.
Fun Fact about Mount Evans Scenic Byway
The Mount Evans High Altitude Auto Test Lab is the only place in the world where auto manufactures can test cars and their engine components up to altitudes of 14,130 feet! So keep your eyes peeled for cars driving around with wild zebra prints and fun camouflage designs (and even some temporary body paneling) to conceal their design while they test them.
This was really fun to see!
Our journey back down Mount Evans was more or less uneventful. Everyone just wanted to be off this mountain.
We did see this little guy on the way down though.
Animals that you may see on Mount Evans include Mountain Goats, Rocky Mountain Big Horns, Marmots, Elk and Deer.
Once we got to the bottom of Mount Evans, we headed straight into Idaho Springs for lunch. We found a really good pizza place called Beau Jos and it was just what we needed. After a good meal, with pizza in our bellies, we all started to feel much better.
Where We Stayed
Comfort Suites Golden West on Evergreen Parkway
This fantastic all-suite hotel offers a free breakfast, a heated indoor swimming pool, a laundry facility and has family rooms that can sleep 6.
We loved our stay here and we hope you do too.
All in all, I’m really glad that we drove up Mount Evans. The scenery was spectacular, the road itself was amazing to drive and the experience is something you can’t get anywhere else in the United States.
I think for my children, that it is going to take a little persuading to get them up another mountain that’s 14,000 feet. On the sad side, we were planning to go up Pike’s Peak the next day and after our experience on top of Mount Evans, no one had any desire to go. So we ended up missing out on this great experience. Maybe someday.
For everyone that will be making this incredible drive, I hope this post has helped you better prepare, so that you will have a wonderful experience, driving on the highest paved road in North America!
We Hope You Have a Great Drive With Your Traveling Feet!
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POPULAR TOURS NEAR MOUNT EVANS
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5 comments
I really love your website We are heading to mt evans today and tomorrow heading to colorado springs and Garden of the Gods. you have been very helpful looking forward to some more travel info from you. Took your advise on not going on weekend
Hi! I hope you have an amazing time at Mt Evans and Garden of the Gods. They are both such beautiful sites. I’m glad I could help in your planning.
Have a Great Trip! Jenny
Yup… that pretty much sums it up. It certainly was a white knuckle adventure. I’m glad I was able to make it.
Heading that way next month. Already have my Mt Evans reservation. Thank you so much for this very informative trip up the mountain. I think we might skip the top. We did Pikes Peak a couple of years ago on a bus. The altitude sickness was not fun!
Hi, I hope you have a wonderful time at Mount Evans (Mount Blue Sky) and I’m glad you found our experience helpful. Please know that once you start up, it is hard to turn around on this road, so you might end up driving to the top. But it’s also very easy to immediately drive right back down with no problems. For us, the altitude issues didn’t take effect until we got out of the car at the top and started walking around for a few minutes. Hopefully you have a wonderful experience on this fantastic mountain. This is such an incredible drive and the scenery is absolutely beautiful.
Thanks for sharing! Jenny