Improvements to a section of Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway (Colo. Highway 5) will impact visitors in 2024 and 2025. Construction will begin in late July or early August 2024 with a temporary lane closure in the project area near Summit Lake. Visitors may experience traffic delays. Starting Sept. 3, 2024, through all of 2025, Mount Blue Sky Highway will be closed to motorized and non-motorized travel (foot, bike, etc.). A public closure area will span from the CDOT gate on Colo. Highway 5 through the project area, above Summit Lake. Access to the Mount Blue Sky summit will only be available from various hiking trails. The area will reopen, as conditions allow, on Memorial Day weekend 2026.
The construction project will repair the damaged roadway from the Summit Lake overflow parking lot to the first switchback past Summit Lake, improving public safety while reducing ongoing impacts to the fragile alpine ecosystem and restoring the natural hydraulic processes through the area. Partners in the project include: The Federal Highway Administration, CDOT, the USDA Forest Service and Denver Mountain Parks.
Areas including Echo Lake Park, Echo Lake Campground, and the Chicago Lakes and Mount Blue Sky Summit trails will remain open during all phases of the construction project. More information will be available in the coming months as the cooperating agencies who manage Mount Blue Sky finalize details and outline plans for sharing updates with the public.
Background on Mount Blue Sky:
In 2019, Clear Creek County supported petitions by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and the Wilderness Society to change the name of Mount Evans, which was named after John Evans, the territorial governor of Colorado who authorized the Sand Creek Massacre. After two nation-to-nation consultations, the Board on Geographic Names voted in September 2023 to change the name to Mount Blue Sky. The new name holds significance to the Arapaho who were known as the Blue Sky People and to the Cheyenne who have an annual renewal of life ceremony called Blue Sky. Following the name change of the mountain, the Colorado Department of Transportation changed the name of the state highway to the Mount Blue Sky Scenic and Historic Byway. As of this printing, legislation to change the name of the Mount Evans Wilderness area has been introduced.
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Check out our online trail guides:
- Glacier National Park: HikinginGlacier.com
- Grand Teton National Park: TetonHikingTrails.com
- Rocky Mountain National Park: RockyMountainHikingTrails.com
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