Mount Evans - The Highest Road in North America

Ask most people what the highest road in North America is and apart from the inevitable "don't know" your most popular answer is likely to be Pikes Peak. In fact the illustrious Pikes Peak Road is the second highest paved highway in North America with first place going to the less well known Mount Evans, a vast mountain rising to 14264 feet on the Denver skyline in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. From the Mile High City, Mt Evans rises not far short of another 2 miles vertically skywards.

Having an ingrained dislike of human interference in these wilderness places, I had certain misgivings about driving a car to the top of Mt Evans but I was determined to have a look as the information about the road I had seen promised a fascinating day out - besides I could always return and ascend the peak on foot when I was better acclimatised. I wasn't going to attempt to hike up a fourteener on my first day here!

The road is known as the Mount Evans Scenic Byway and leaves Idaho Springs (Route 103) to climb gradually through the deep forest groves of pine and aspen trees that densely cloak the lower slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the west of Denver. The toll to drive the road was $10 and is valid for 3 days which I thought was reasonable as I ascended towards Echo Lake with views of the snow capped Mt Evans and its satellite peaks beginning to emerge through gaps in the green forest wall by the roadside.

Echo Lake was my first stop and I stood for a while by its tree lined shores contemplating the silent vastness around me. There was scarcely a ripple on the water's surface such was the shelter given by the trees. I was at 10600 feet and could already feel the effects of the altitude so I wandered into the nearby Echo Lake Lodge to slow my rate of ascent. There's a gift shop and restaurant and I decided an early lunch would help my mild altitude effects so I opted for one of their excellent elk burgers - at least you know it's free range!

I learned here that the local bear population had recently been active, with one particularly large black bear having taken to breaking into people's outside larders for an easy meal. I would treat the forest with a new respect having heard this! I was glad I'd stopped and the family who ran the place gave me a warm welcome. It was a shame they didn't offer overnight accommodation though as I would have stayed a night and tackled the Chicago Lakes Trail to Mount Evans. There is a campground in the summer season though I didn't have camping gear with me on this occasion.

once again I set off up the gradually climbing road which soon ascended above the main tree line. At Mount Goliath I stopped again for a short walk to an alpine garden. Here there also grew some rare bristlecone pine trees and gnarled looking specimens they were too. Apparently some of these are 1600 years old - a fact which I found amazing. They grew at the the treeline on the edge of the open high altitude tundra with the pine forests spread out on the slopes below and views across the Rockies to the snowy twin summits of Grays Peak and Torreys Peak to the West.

Higher again and the road now wound its way around the side of the vast stony bulk of Rogers Peak, huge snowdrifts now having replaced the trees at its side before crossing a more level area of tundra to reach the frozen Summit Lake at 12800 feet. My light headedness from the altitude had returned and I got out into a cold and breezy day. A path led across the bare arctic landscape to an overlook where the Chicago Lakes Trail came up from the valley in which the lakes themselves were visible some way below.

The last stretch of the Mt Evans Scenic Byway climbed more steeply, zigzagging to and fro past banks of snow and shaly slopes up to the final summit block of the mountain. The almost empty car park at 14130 feet was cold and windy - the weather forecast was for 12 inches of snow to close the road again tonight - so breathlessly I wandered up a short section of path through rocks and frozen snow to the actual summit.

The view from here seems to stretch for an eternity - the sea of snow edged peaks that make up the Colorado Rockies are spread out in a 180 degree arc in the West - from Pikes Peak in the South to Longs Peak in the North. Eastwards, Denver is just visible and beyond, the vast expanse of the Midwest plains leading out towards Kansas. The thin air was starting to make me feel rather strange so I made my way back to the car park to descend. On its far side was the domed observatory operated by Denver University and the forlorn looking ruins of the Crest House snack bar which was destroyed by fire in 1979 and never rebuilt.

As I was about to leave, another car pulled up occupied by an English expat. He told me that he'd held his wedding reception in the Crest House some years before the fire but the party had been forced to reconvene down in Idaho Springs when one by one, the guests had started passing out from the altitude. An amusing story but it just went to show that care is needed at this elevation. An aircraft flying 3000 feet lower than we were now would be required to carry oxygen or have a pressurised cabin.

I did return later in my trip to hike up the mountain though weather conditions meant I walked from Summit Lake rather than Echo Lake Lodge. The trip up the road though is a brilliant day out and the visual impact of the road on the landscape isn't so bad as I had feared at first. A good tip is to go when you've spent a few days at the high elevations of the surrounding areas if you can rather than on your first day here! Take your time going up and enjoy the views and the wildlife. I saw marmots and bighorn sheep and there are also mountain goats around and about but do let me know if you see that bear.