Mount Blue Sky @ 14,140’s Our Highest Paved Rd

MIGeezer

Was this road paved because of the popularity or use because of gold mining, etc. in the past?

I was in NW Montana last fall and was on a road in the middle of nowhere that 15 miles of it was paved. I asked a number of locals about it and they didn't know it was paved. Was nice driving the back woods without pot holes and rocks. The end of the road, at the border, there was a large cleared section, so my assumption is it was an old logging road.

Kenneth

Clouds and potential storms weren’t gonna keep us out of our Bronco today. We’re driving to Mt Blue Sky’s summit .. well actually ~120ft below its top.

Mt Blue Sky aka Mt Evans dominates Denver’s western skyline. There’re lots of wildlife, Marmots, Big Horn Sheep and Mountain Goats are frequently seen near & on the roadway. Oh at 14,000ft, it’s also ~30 degrees cooler than Denver, so very popular for summertime day trips

We saw lots of female & yearling Big Horn Sheep. This time of year, the Rams are off doing their own thing probably on the higher ridges.

This girl’s very interested in a tow hitch - Tasty!

Still lots of snow pack up here.

Over 12,000ft, Summit Lakes still frozen too. Summit's our water source. Evergreen, Co is lucky to have this 'First use" potable water source.

Marmots enjoying nice spring day too. As we approached, they sounded their piercing 'alarm'. Actually sounded like our residential smoke detectors.

Lots of bike riders up here today too.


Mt Bierstadt, another 14,000ft Mtn on center left here.


Here’s the summit parking lot at 14,130ft. Nearby, here’s an old observatory that’s no longer in service.

Here you can see Colorado’s South Park in center left. Lot of old timer history there. FairPlay, CO’s there and some say they didn’t always play fair there!


Gotta respect the snow removal folks that clear this roadway - Great job!!


Sheep luv licking asphalt & drinking water off the road!!

See ya next time!!

Cheers

Click to expand...

Unicorn

Colorado means business when the put up a gate.... Here is a gate I ran into today. (not literally, looks like some one else did that for me... actually I think it was the 15 to 18 foot of snow.)

Did not make it up as high as you did.... But we still had snow at 10000 feet.

did not see any goats or sheep but did see deer and marmots.

Kenneth

LOL - Yeah, that probably $10k gate's ridiculous. This Mt Blue Sky (aka Mt Evans) Rec area's managed by an impossible to understand 'partnership' of Federal, Colorado state & Denver city agencies. Heck, for over 100 years this was Mt Evans, but after 4 years of 'study' a coalition of these folks with various native American groups decited to change it's name to Mt Blue Sky.

We can assume that gate's a work product of another such committee. We haven't seen anything close to that 4 & 6" tubular steel gate construction anywhere else.

Nice trail pics - Thanks for posting!!

Cheers

Kenneth

LOL - Yeah, that probably $10k gate's ridiculous. This Mt Blue Sky (aka Mt Evans) Rec area's managed by an impossible to understand 'partnership' of Federal, Colorado state & Denver city agencies. Heck, for over 100 years this was Mt Evans, but after 4 years of 'study' a coalition of these folks with various native American groups decited to change it's name to Mt Blue Sky.

We can assume that gate's a work product of another such committee. We haven't seen anything close to that 4 & 6" tubular steel gate construction anywhere else.

Nice trail pics - Thanks for posting!!

Cheers