A Trip to the Top of the World - Mt. Evans Co 17 Jul 2013, plus a bit more

The day after our Rocky Mountain National Park drive, we got up early and headed south from our RV park on the 30 mile drive to the top of Mt. Evans, another 14'er that is accessible via the highest paved road in North America. We wanted an early start, as by about 11 am the clouds start to build up along the Front Range, and we wanted to see the views unobstructed by  clouds.

 This is the last hairpin turn before the parking lot near the summit of Mt. Evans. We were surprised that the entire summit is made up of tumbled boulders, rather than a smooth granite dome.

 These mountain goats were perched on the rocks right next to the parking area at the top of the road. They are really scruffy looking as they shed their winter coats.

 We hiked up the very rough, rocky trail to the top of Mt. Evans from the parking lot - only about 134 feet above the parking lot, but lots of switchbacks, and given that the final altitude is 14,264 feet, we were quite out of breath. This is the view to the northwest from the summit. The ridge visible at the mid-left is part of the trail up from Summit Lake, visible at the lower right.

Summit Lake sits on the north side of Mt. Evans. The trail from the parking lot is visible as a diagonal line from the lower right to upper left of the photo.

Here we are at the summit, with a tired Shelby. I'm not sure she liked the altitude any better than we did! It does feel like the top of the world, with 360 degree views all around.

Back down at the parking area, we again document our highest trip to date (I doubt we'll ever get any higher, given that we're not mountain climbers). This view is to the northeast, toward Denver.

 Just below the first hairpin turn on our way down the mountain, cars were stopped in both lanes of the road to view these mountain goat families. The adults are shedding hair like mad, but the kids look soft and fluffy.

 This is one of the turns on the wider part of the road down Mt. Evans (the narrower part doesn't have a center line). No guardrail, no shoulder, and a steep drop off made for very cautious driving! We were glad we'd gone up early, as by noon the summit was completely fogged in by monsoon clouds building on the front range.

After two days of driving mountain switchbacks, we decided to let the engineer do the driving on the Georgetown Loop Railroad - a narrow-gauge steam engine train that climbs from Devil's Gate in Georgetown (8615 feet) to Silver Plume, 2 miles up the canyon at 9178 feet. The railroad was originally built to bring ore down for processing, and was dismantled after the mining boom ended. It was rebuilt in the 1970's as a tourist attraction.

 On July 19th, we left Idaho Springs and headed farther west on I-70. Here were are winding our way through Glenwood Canyon. The Colorado River is full of red silt from the recent heavy rainstorms. Note how the eastbound lanes disappear under the elevated westbound lanes of the interstate - no room in the canyon for side by side roads!

 These twin tunnels are at the western end of Glenwood Canyon. See how much browner the river is down stream from a weir dam that seems to be trapping most of the red silt.

 We stayed one night at Grande River Vineyards, one of the Harvest Hosts that allow us to dry camp overnight - of course, it ended up being more expensive than a campground because we liked a number of their wines and bought several bottles.

We circled the lower parking area five or six times trying to find a level parking spot, and finally ended up at the bottom of the lot propped up on boards to get level - but it sure beats staying overnight at a truck stop!

Later this week I'll post another entry describing our stay in far western Colorado - Colorado National Monument and the Palisade Fruit and Wine Byway.