Mount Blue Sky (previously Mount Evans) is the highest peak in the Mount Evans Wilderness in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The prominent fourteener is located southwest by south (bearing 214°) of Idaho Springs in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States, on the drainage divide between Clear Creek in Arapaho National Forest and the North Fork South Platte River in Pike National Forest.
The peak is one of the characteristic Front Range peaks, dominating the western skyline of the Great Plains along with Pikes Peak, Longs Peak, and nearby Mount Bierstadt. Mount Blue Sky can be seen from over to the east, and many miles in other directions. Mount Blue Sky dominates the Denver metropolitan area skyline, rising over above the area. Mount Blue Sky can be seen from points south of Castle Rock ( south), as far north as Fort Collins ( north), and from areas near Limon ( east).
The mountain was previously named for the second governor of the Territory of Colorado, John Evans. However, due to Evans's involvement in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, there were years of discussion over renaming Mount Evans. On September 15, 2023, the United States Board on Geographic Names officially changed the mountain's name to Mount Blue Sky.
Geography Mount Blue Sky is the highest peak in a massif. The peak is west of Denver as the crow flies and approximately by road via Idaho Springs. Other peaks in the massif are: Mount Spalding (), northwest Gray Wolf Mountain (), north-northwest The Sawtooth (), west Mount Bierstadt (), west-southwest Mount Warren (), north-northeast Rogers Peak (), northeast. Mount Goliath (), northeast, Epaulet Mountain (), southeast, Rosalie Peak (), southeast,
At least 7 deep glacial cirques cut into the massif. The cirques around Mount Blue Sky are the deepest cirques in the Colorado Rockies. The bottoms of many of these contain tarns, the most notable being: Summit Lake at the head of Bear Creek, north the Chicago Lakes at the head of Chicago Creek, north Abyss Lake at the head of Lake Fork, west-southwest
The Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway consists of State Highway 103 from Idaho Springs, Colorado on I-70 about to Echo Lake, and Colorado 5 from Echo Lake , ending at a parking area and turnaround just below the summit. The latter has long been the highest paved road in North America (5th highest in the world) and is only open in the summer. Colorado 103 continues east from Echo Lake to Mestaa'ėhehe Pass, from which it connects, via Clear Creek County Road 103 and Jefferson County Road 66, to Bergen Park from which Colorado 74 leads to Evergreen.
The Guanella Pass Scenic Byway passes within west of Mount Blue Sky, linking Georgetown and I-70 with Grant and US 285, to the south.
A marked hiking trail roughly parallels the highway from Echo Lake to the summit and is rated class 2. A class 3 side route of Mount Bierstadt climbs to the northeastern peak of The Sawtooth, from which an easier ridge leads to the summit of Mount Blue Sky.
Most of the Evans massif is now part of the Mount Evans Wilderness area in Arapaho National Forest and Pike National Forest. The exception is a narrow corridor along the highway from Echo Lake that is excluded from the wilderness. Summit Lake Park and Echo Lake Park are part of the historic Denver Mountain Parks system.
History
At least 48 different tribes have ancestral ties to the area around the mountain.
Albert Bierstadt and his guide, William Newton Byers, approached the mountain along Chicago Creek from Idaho Springs in 1863. Bierstadt called it Mount Rosalie, initially naming the mountain after his wife-to-be Rosalie Osborne, spending several days painting sketches of the mountain from the Chicago Lakes before climbing to Summit Lake and onward to the summit. Bierstadt's sketch, Mountain Lake, accurately portrays the view of Mount Spalding over the Chicago Lakes. His painting A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie, is based on that and other sketches.Albert Bierstadt A Storm in the Rocky Mountains , 1866, in the American Art collection of the Brooklyn Museum.Albert Bierstadt, Mountain Lake , , no date.
William Henry Jackson, attached to the Hayden Survey, visited the Chicago Lakes in 1873, where he took numerous photographs; the summit of the mountain is barely visible in several of these, peeking over the col between upper Chicago Lake and Summit Lake.William Henry Jackson, Chicago Lakes, Mount Rosalie, ID. Jackson, W.H. 1435 , ID. Jackson, W.H. 1436 ID. Jackson, W.H. 1437 U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library , 1873. The Hayden survey reported that Mount Rosalie was above sea level, measured by triangulation.W. H. Jackson, F. V. Hayden, 1873 Series, Descriptive Catalog of the Photographs of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories for the years 1869 to 1875, Inclusive, Second Ed., Washington, 1875; page 63.H. Gannett, F. V. Hayden, Lists of Elevations principally in That Portion of the United States West of the Mississippi River, Fourth Ed., Washington, 1877; page 125.
The history of the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway is part of a larger story of the Denver Mountain Parks system. The City and County of Denver initiated the construction of a series of automobile "scenic loops" to allow Denverites to explore the mountains. One road circuit, Circle G, was to traverse the ridge to Mestaa'ėhehe Pass on to Echo Lake, culminate in a climb up Mount Blue Sky, and loop down to Idaho Springs. In order to achieve this goal, Denver Mountain Parks acquired a series of land parcels, including the acquisition of Bergen Park in 1915. The Bear Creek segment from the Genesee saddle to Bergen Park was finished in 1915, while the Denver Mountain Parks committee worked to make Mount Evans a National Park, going as far as getting support in Congress for the construction of a "cement road" to the mountain. The first mile was paid for by Denver with the understanding that the State Highway Commission would do the rest.Downing, William M. 1931 How Denver Acquired Her Celebrated Mountain Parks, a Condensed History of the Building of America's Most Unique Park System. In Municipal Facts. Volume 13, numbers 3–4 March–April. The Denver Mountain Parks committee was not without disagreement and setbacks, however. $30,000 was acquired early in 1916 to construct the Bergen Park to Mestaa'ėhehe Pass segment and all seemed to be flowing towards the goal of Mount Evans when the mayor of Denver, Robert W. Speer, appointed W.F.R. Mills as the Commissioner of Improvements, who summarily stopped the construction of the road, stating that "It is a road that starts nowhere, ends nowhere, and never gets there". After studying the issue, Mills later recanted and became a supporter of the park system, and the segment between Bergen Park and Mestaa'ėhehe Pass was constructed beginning in the spring of 1918. The next act was to get Mount Evans classified as a National Park, but 1916 was a tumultuous time between the National Park system and the U.S. Forest Service, who currently held claim to the mountain. Already in bitter struggle to prevent the formation of a National Park Service, Chief Forester Graves adamantly blocked the relinquishment of this area of National Forest, in exchange for Forest Service development of the area including the immediate construction of a road between Mestaa'ėhehe Pass and Echo Lake (Colorado). This joint exercise between the City and County of Denver, the U.S. Congress, the State Highway System, and now the Forest Service would be completed with help of a newly formed Federal Agency, the Bureau of Public Roads. In 1918, the Bureau of Public Roads provided the plan to construct of road from Soda Pass (later called Squaw Pass and now called Mestaa'ėhehe Pass) to Echo Lake beginning in 1919. By 1920, the road only went as far as Chief Mountain."Car and Camera" 1920 The Mountain Parks. In Municipal Facts. Volume 3, numbers 3–4 March–April. By October 1, 1921, the Bureau of Public Roads had completed construction to Echo Lake.No Author 1921 Echo Lake Purchased. In Municipal Facts. Volume 4, numbers 9–10 September–October. The first survey for the road from Echo Lake to the peak of Mount Blue Sky was made in 1923, finishing the layout by January 1924 despite a flu outbreak in the camp, damaging windstorms, and nearly insurmountable environmental hardships.Sampson, Edith 1931 The Giant Highway. In Municipal Facts, Volume 14, numbers 3–4 March–April. Battling the unusual problems that come with high-altitude construction (steam shovels performing only half as effectively at high altitude, difficulty of hauling coal and water, horse suicide, etc.) the last were finally built by hand, being completed in 1930.Sampson, Edith 1930 Along the World's Highest Automobile Road. In Municipal Facts, Volume 13, numbers 9–10 September–October.
The ruins of the Crest House (1941–1942) sit nearby. Once containing both a restaurant and a gift shop, it burned down on September 1, 1979, and was not rebuilt, remaining as a place of contemplation today. The rock foundation and walls remain as a windbreak for mountain travelers, and the viewing platform is one of Colorado's premier scenic overlooks.
The mountain, along with Echo Lake, was designated as a historic site by the American Physical Society in 2017, commemorating the many cosmic-ray physics experiments conducted on the mountain between 1935 and 1960.Mount Evans and Echo Lake, Colorado, part of the APS Historic Sites Initiative; accessed Oct, 2019.
Mount Blue Sky also hosts the annual Mt. Evans Hill Climb, a bicycle race with a total of of climbing.
Environment
Climate
The atmospheric pressure on the summit is around 460 Torr (610 mbar), while a standard atmosphere (sea level) is 760 Torr (1013 mbar). At this pressure, many people suffer from altitude sickness.Erling Asmussen and Frank C. Consolazio, The Circulation and Rest and Work on Mount Evans (4,300 M.), [ajplegacy.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/132/2/555.pdf American Journal of Physiology], Vol 132, No. 2 (Feb. 1941); page 555.
The climate on the summit of Mount Blue Sky can be extreme. The mean annual temperature on the summit is .Jack D. Ives and Barry D. Fahey, Permafrost Occurrence in the Front Range, Colorado Rocky Mountains, U.S.A. Journal of Glaciology , Vol. 10, No. 58 (Spring 1971); pages 105-111. Temperatures often fall below , and occasionally fall as low as . The highest temperature recorded on the summit was , and below freezing temperatures may occur at any time of year. The maximum wind speed measured was , the average is from . When the wind speed is over , the wind is almost always from the west-southwest.Robert E. Stencel, Challenges and Opportunities in Operating a High-Altitude Site, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, Vol. 6, Springer, 2006; page 97 (for weather data, see sections 2 and 3.2).
2012 tornado At 2:51 pm on July 28, 2012, a weak, short-lived tornado touched down northeast of Mount Blue Sky's summit at an elevation estimated by the National Weather Service of above sea level. The tornado was the second highest recorded in the United States but did not cause any damage because it was above tree line.
Flora The slopes of Mount Blue Sky include several distinct environments. Below Echo Lake, the montane forest is dominated by lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and in some areas, blue spruce (Picea pungens), with patches of quaking aspen. Echo Lake is high enough to be in the subalpine forest, where Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) dominate.