CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. — One of Colorado's most popular mountain roads is closing for the season and won't reopen until 2026.
The Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway is scheduled to close on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
Construction will then begin to repair and reconstruct 0.7 miles of the road near the Summit Lake parking lot. The construction project is being led by the Federal Highways Administration’s Federal Lands Access Program.
The road will be closed to vehicles, bikes and pedestrians from the gate near the Forest Service welcome station all the way to the summit parking area. Hiking trails in the area will remain open.
Anyone hoping to drive the road over the Labor Day weekend before it closes, will need to get a time-entry reservation, which is available up to two days in advance. The forest service said these permit are limited and in high demand.
So far, more than 45,000 vehicles booked timed-entry reservations for the 2024 season.
The road is expected to reopen on Memorial Day weekend 2026, if conditions allow it.
Formerly named Mount Evans, the 14,264-foot peak was named after John Evans, Colorado’s second territorial governor and ex-officio superintendent of Indian affairs. Evans resigned after Col. John Chivington led an 1864 U.S. cavalry massacre of more than 200 Arapaho and Cheyenne people — most of them women, children and the elderly — at Sand Creek in what is now southeastern Colorado.
In September 2023, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names voted overwhelmingly to change Mount Evans to Mount Blue Sky at the request of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and with the approval of Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The Arapaho were known as the Blue Sky People, while the Cheyenne hold an annual renewal-of-life ceremony called Blue Sky.
