Mt. Evans is an impressive-looking mountain in Colorado's Front Range, easily seen from Denver. Painter Albert Bierstadt may have been the first to make the Evans summit - originally called Mount Rosalie after his wife - in 1863.
Today there are three main routes to the summit of Mt. Evans. The easiest is to simply drive your car to within 30 feet of the top on the highest paved road in North America. For the bit more adventurous, you can stop at 12,830 ft. at Summit Lake, which is what we did on September 5, 1994.
It's a very simple, if steep, climb up the boulders of Evans' north ridge to achieve the summit. Just make sure you don't venture too far west to some pretty trecherous cliffs. All told, it's only about a half of a mile, though it will seem like more.
Once at the summit, you'll be inundated with people, but the view is very nice. The summit of Mt. Bierstadt is only two miles distant along the Sawtooth Ridge connecting the two mountains. Pikes Peak rises about 60 miles to the south; gazing north you'll spy Longs Peak. To the east, of course, 8,984 feet below you, lies the city of Denver. It's below that brown cloud you can see stretching into the plains.
If you want to make a whole day of it, begin at Echo Lake (at about 10,600 ft.), and follow the trail about 5 1/2 miles to Summit Lake.
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