For a few years now I wanted to add Mount Blue Sky (formerly Mount Evans) to my list of 14ers (primarily because you can drive to it). So, we finally had the opportunity to drive there this year. The access road has been closed for maintenance for the past couple of years, so I believe this was the opening of a new window in time to take the drive.
It was an awesome drive. The road, while safe, had a lot of exposure at various times and the views were spectacular. On the way to the peak we stopped at the visitor center that had interesting displays inside and a really nice set of nature trails out the back.
We walked along the nature trails and in addition to beautiful scenes and views there were awesome Bristlecone Pines which are known to be among the oldest living type of trees on the planet.
Further up the road was a parking area with restrooms and trailheads and mountain goats.
When we got to the parking lot near the peak we saw the observatory as well as the trail that goes up another half mile or so the peak. We headed up the trail and as we got to the top the wind and sleet were hitting us really hard. Nevertheless, we captured a few nice pics and hurried down for some shelter. The people that were just getting to the parking lot at that time were not able to climb to the peak because the precipitation and wind got too strong.
