Mount Blue Sky is closed this year. But there’s another, more difficult way to climb this 14er.
The most commonly used trail for hiking the popular peak is inaccessible this summer due to a road project

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post
Fourteener enthusiasts will have to go a long way this summer to climb one of the state’s most recognizable peaks, even though it’s the closest one to Denver.
Mount Blue Sky, formerly known as Mount Evans, dominates the western skyline as seen from the metro area, but it will be a lot more difficult to climb than usual. That’s because the trailhead for the most commonly used route — a 5.5-mile round-trip hike from Summit Lake with a 2,000-foot elevation gain — won’t be accessible to motorists due to a road repair project.
The recommended alternative involves 17 miles of hiking with 5,600 feet of climbing.
Only 25 miles from Denver’s western suburbs, Blue Sky is the state’s 14th-highest peak and ranks in the top 20 within the contiguous 48 states, topping out at 14,266 feet. According to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, Blue Sky attracted 10-15,000 visitors in 2023, the most recent year for which figures are available. The only Colorado peaks that attracted more were Mount Bierstadt, Mount Elbert, Quandary Peak and the twin peaks of Grays and Torreys.
Read more from John Meyer at DenverPost.com.

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