On Walkabout On: Mt. Evans, Colorado via the Summit Lake Trail – Part 2

Previous Posting: Mt. Evans, Colorado via the Summit Lake Trail – Part 1

After about three hours of hiking up the rugged 14,264 foot Mt. Evans which soars above Denver, Colorado, I was now approaching the summit.  The scramble up to the summit was a bit surreal because of how many people were there compared to the few people I saw on the trail.  Since it was such a nice day many people had driven up the Mt. Evans Highway and thus the summit was a pretty busy place.  On the summit I noticed that the register log was broken, thus I had no way to sign in on the official summit register, bummer:

I did find the US Geological Survey’s summit marker though:

The marker said that Mt. Evans was 14,258 feet in elevation which is slightly different from the 14,254 feet that I commonly see Mt. Evans listed as.  Like other mountains in Colorado, it seems the elevations are always a little bit different depending on who you talk to.  A perfect example of this is my Garmin Fenix watch that was over a hundred feet off from what the actual summit elevation was:

That left me to enjoy the views from the summit with the hordes of tourists who have driven up the Mt. Evans Highway.  I even had one tourist ask curiously why I hiked up here when I could have just drove up the mountain?  I think some people will just never understand hiking and climbing.  Despite the hordes of tourists the views from the summit were very enjoyable. Something else that was enjoyable was the fact that once I reached the summit, the wind stopped.  It was amazing the temperature difference once the wind stopped.  I took off my winter cap, cold weather gloves, face mask, and unzipped my jacket because of how hot I suddenly got.  I ended up spending over 45 minutes on the summit because of how enjoyable the weather had become.

Anyway here are the views from the summit starting with the view to the north:

Here is the view looking towards the northwest which shows Mt. Spalding and the ridgeline I hiked up to reach the summit:

Here is the view looking to the west where once again the twin peaks of Grays and Torreys Peaks catch the eye:

Here is a closer look at these mountains that are scenic from any angle that you look at them from:

Here is the view towards the southwest where Mt. Bierstadt can be seen backdropped by the Mosquito Range:

Also to the southwest the large South Park basin was also easily visible:

Here is the view looking towards the south where the parking lot and observatory could be seen below:

Something else that could be seen to the far south was the 14,115 foot Pikes Peak:

You can read about my previous hike up Pikes Peak at the below link:

• Pikes Peak via the Devil’s Playground

Here is the view looking towards Denver out to the east that was obscured by haze:

Finally here is the view towards the northeast where the Mt. Evans Highway could be seen gripping the sides of the mountains below:

Here are some of the panorama photos I took from the summit.  This first one is of the view looking to the north where Summit Lake can be seen towards the center of the photograph:

Here is another panorama photo to the north but not as stretched out as the previous one:

Here is another panorama looking towards the west which shows the ridgeline I followed towards the summit as well as Mt. Bierstadt just visible behind it:

After spending about 45 minutes hanging out on the summit I then proceeded to walk down to the parking lot.  Near the parking lot I spotted this plaque placed on one of the rocks that commemorates the engineer Drexel Lacey who completed the survey of the Mt. Evans Highway back in 1926:

Also at the parking lot was this marker that points out all the various mountains that can be seen from Mt. Evans:

Here is the view from the marker looking back towards the summit of Mt. Evans that I had just descended:

From the marker I walked over to an old survival shelter that had been converted into a restroom and break area for people driving up the mountain on the highway:

From the old shelter I then began to follow a path to the south towards an observatory that was built near the summit of Mt. Evans.  While walking to the observatory I had a beautiful view of the forested foothills to the southeast of Mt. Evans:

In 1996 the University of Denver open the new 2,100 square foot Meyer- Womble Observatory, atop Mt.Evans.  At the time it was the highest observatory in the world at 14,148 feet above seal level.  This was an honor the observatory would keep until a higher observatory was constructed in the Indian Himalayas in 2001.  The observatory was all locked up when I visited and I could find no information if the public could visit the observatory even if it was open:

From the observatory I then began my walk back to Summit Lake.  Instead of retracing my steps back across the ridgeline to Mt. Spalding, I decided to take the easy route down by descending via the slopes the Mt. Evans Highway ascends up the mountain by:

I found descending down the slopes of Mt. Evans near the highway to be extremely quick:

On the steep snow covered slope I could see plenty of tracks that skiers had made going down it which tempted me just to slide down it myself.  However, I have a bad back and I did not want to risk aggravating it by sliding down the slope.  So I put on my microspikes and carefully walked down the steep slope of snow:

Soon enough I could see the highway down below:

Once down the slope l had to break through some snow on the side of the highway that was up to my waist that can be seen pictured below:

Once on the side of the highway it was easy going back to Summit Lake:

From the side of the highway I also had some great sweeping views to the east to take in:

The closer I got to Summit Lake is when I began to see the high alpine marshes begin to appear:

The marshes were really quite scenic:

Later in the summer I figured this marshes must be extremely beautiful when the plants around them turn green.  Even in mid-June in the high country of Colorado spring has not arrived yet:

As I approached Summit Lake the high ridgeline I had climbed up and crossed to Mt. Evans was quite stunning.  I could also see cornices formed high on the ridgeline that appeared to be avalanches just waiting to happen:

This made me glad that I did not venture to close to the edge when I was up on the ridgeline because I would hate to be standing on one of those snowy cornices when it gives out.

Finally before heading back to the parking lot I took this one last photo of Summit Lake backdropped by the Mt. Evans ridgeline:

I thought this photo came out really good considering I was nearly laying down on my belly trying to take it.  If the ice was melted and the mountain was reflecting off the lake then the picture would have been even better.  Regardless I really like this photograph and will always be the image that comes to mind when I think of Mt. Evans.

Conclusion

Overall Mt. Evans was a fun hike and I really enjoyed it.  The rock scrambling and ice was a bit more than I expected, but it wasn’t overly hard.  For anyone not comfortable doing a little rock scrambling and dealing with the ice I recommend just following the Mt. Evans Highway and then cutting up the more gentle slopes on the south side of the peak.  Or you could just drive up which is the easiest way to access the mountain.  However, you get to the top of Mt. Evans I am sure you will enjoy the views and the experience this great mountain provides.