North America’s highest paved road, the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway, will be closed to all traffic to the summit, including motorized vehicles, bicycles and most hiking routes, on Sept. 3 as road repairs continue through Memorial Day 2026, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The service road, also known as CO Hwy 5, is closed from the forest service gate near Highway 103 in Clear Creek County through the project area above Summit Lake, USFS officials said.
The USFS plans to repair the damaged road from the Summit Lake overflow parking lot to the first switchback past Summit Lake.
Danille Perrone of Toronto, Canada, stood with friends on the summit of Mount Blue Sky on August 23 in 40-degree heat as a cold wind blew across the peak, enjoying the view of Summit Lake below from 14,264 feet.
“It’s rough and fresh, it’s God’s country,” Perrone said.
The USFS said its goal was to “improve public safety while reducing ongoing impacts to the fragile alpine ecosystem and restoring natural hydraulic processes in the region.”
During a recent drive on the highway to the summit, it became clear that repairs were needed. Cars, SUVs and pickup trucks crawled over large potholes up the final stretch of road at 10 to 15 mph.
The road itself was barely wide enough for two vehicles going up or down hill, and featured huge depressions in the asphalt, forcing smaller vehicles to crawl up and down the undulating road at a snail’s pace.
As you approach the summit, you will be enveloped by high clouds that look like mist until you break through and realize you are above the gauzy white and gray clouds.
Once you reach the summit and exit the vehicle, you will find yourself in a completely different environment than when you began your journey to the summit of one of Colorado’s 14 mountains.
The outside temperature is below 40 degrees and strong cold gusts of wind whip across the summit, hitting those who decide to complete the journey to the summit with a short hike to the top.
The rocky path to the summit takes hikers over at least four switchbacks to the top, where a brass plate embedded in the rock marks the summit and the height; it was installed there in 1955.
Once at the top, the view stretches for miles above the clouds, especially to Pikes Peak to the south and Mount Bierstadt to the west.
As Perrone put it: “You are on top of the world.”
The site, formerly known as Mount Evans, was voted to be renamed Mount Blue Sky by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names on September 15, 2023, by a vote of 15 to 1.
The name change followed years of lobbying and petitions by the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, who wanted to separate the mountain from its original namesake, Territorial Governor John Evans.
According to historical sources, Evans authorized the so-called Sand Creek Massacre.
On a November morning in 1864, Colonel John Chivington and parts of the Colorado Infantry Regiment of Volunteers and the Regiment of Colorado Cavalry Volunteers launched an attack on Arapaho and Cheyenne civilians camped about 180 miles southeast of Denver. According to the National Park Service, the troops massacred about 230 people over the course of eight hours, including many women, children and the elderly.
The mountain’s new name comes from the Blue Sky Ceremony, a ceremony for all living things, including “men, women, children, plants, earth, water, life,” Chester Whiteman of the Southern Cheyenne tribe said in an interview with the Courant in 2023.
Still, the iconic Mount Blue Sky will be returned to nature for at least a year and a half, away from tourists and local traffic. A few mountain goats resting on the summit seemed unperturbed by the impending changes to their natural environment.
Tourists from across the country expressed disappointment at the closure at the summit, including a couple from Raytown, Missouri, who said the trip to Mount Blue Sky was part of an annual tradition to experience the summit of a Colorado 14er and escape the Missouri humidity.
The most common opinion, however, was: “When it comes to fixing the road for safety reasons, that’s just the way it is: you have to keep it safe,” Perrone said.
