Mount Blue Sky

The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is a 49-mile (79 km) National Forest Scenic Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Clear Creek and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. The byway ascends to 14,140 feet (4,310 m) of elevation near the 14,271-foot (4,350 m) summit of Mount Blue Sky, making it the highest paved road in North America (beating the 14,115-foot (4,302 m) Pikes Peak Highway by only 25 feet (8 m).) The byway visits Echo Lake Park, the Mount Goliath Natural Area, the Dos Chappell Nature Center, and Summit Lake Park on its way to the summit. A fee is charged to travel State Highway 5 to the summit and vehicles over 30 feet (9.1 m) long are not allowed, although they are allowed on State Highway 103 which reaches its highest elevation of 11,020 feet (3,359 m) at Juniper Pass. The byway connects to the Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway at Bergen Park.

White River National Forest is a National Forest in northwest Colorado. It is named after the White River that passes through its northern section. It is the most visited National Forest in the United States, primarily from users of the twelve ski areas within its boundaries. The forest contains 2,285,970 acres (3,571.8 sq mi, or 9,250.99 km²). In descending order of land area it is located in parts of Eagle, Pitkin, Garfield, Summit, Rio Blanco, Mesa, Gunnison, Routt, and Moffat counties.The White River National Forest provides significant habitat for deer, elk, mountain sheep, mountain goat, bear, mountain lion, bobcat, lynx, moose, raptors, waterfowl, trout and many other species of wildlife. The forest contains 1,900 mi. (3,058 km) of forest system roads, 2,500 mi (4,023 km) of trails, and the Dillon, Green Mountain, Ruedi, and Homestake reservoirs. The forest is managed from Forest Service offices in Glenwood Springs. There are local ranger district offices in Aspen, Carbondale, Eagle, Meeker, Minturn, Rifle, and Silverthorne. The Dillon Ranger district, run out of Silverthorne, was transferred from the Arapahoe National Forest to the White River National Forest in 1998.

Arapaho National Forest is a National Forest located in north-central Colorado, United States. The region is managed jointly with the Roosevelt National Forest and the Pawnee National Grassland from the United States Forest Service office in Fort Collins, Colorado. It has a wildlife refuge which manages a protection for all birds and mammals. The combined facility of 1,730,603 acres (7,004 km2) is denoted as ARP (Arapaho, Roosevelt, Pawnee) by the Forest Service. Separately, Arapaho National Forest consists of 723,744 acres (2,929 km2).The forest is located in the Rocky Mountains, straddling the continental divide in the Front Range west of Denver. It was established on July 1, 1908, by President Theodore Roosevelt and named for the Arapaho tribe of Native Americans which previously inhabited the Colorado Eastern Plains. The forest includes part of the high Rockies and river valleys in the upper watershed of the Colorado River and South Platte River. The forest is largely in Grand and Clear Creek counties, but spills over into neighboring (in descending order of land area) Gilpin, Park, Routt, Jackson, and Jefferson counties. There are local ranger district offices located in Granby and Idaho Springs.

The Mount Evans Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area in Arapaho National Forest and Pike National Forest about 30 miles (48 km) west of Denver, Colorado. The wilderness area is named after Mount Blue Sky's former name, Mount Evans

Meyer–Womble Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of Denver. It is located near the summit of Mount Blue Sky in the Arapaho National Forest approximately 60 kilometers (37 mi) west of Denver, Colorado (USA). At an elevation of 4,326 meters (14,193 ft), it is the third-highest optical/infrared observatory in the world, and was the highest until the Indian Astronomical Observatory opened in 2001.Through a gift of $3.8 million from the estate of William Womble, construction of the facility began in 1995 and was completed in 1996. Eric Meyer, M.D., an anesthesiologist who designed the dual-aperture 0.72 m (28 in) f/21 Ritchey-Chretien telescope, and his wife, Barbara, donated $1 million and brought the optical components personally from Chicago. The optical/infrared telescopes saw first light in August 1997.During the 2011–12 winter, the dome over the telescope was damaged by high winds, allowing snow to enter the observing area. The telescope was secured in early April 2012 by a mountaineer who hiked to the summit. A complete inspection of the damage did not take place until the road to the summit opened in May. During the following summer, the remains of the old dome were demolished and a new dome was fabricated. Installation of the new structure occurred on October 20, 2012.

Summit Lake Park is a park located along Mount Evans Scenic Byway about 64 miles (100 km) west of Denver, Colorado. The park is 160 acres (0.65 km²) in size and contains alpine tundra. Land to the east of the lake is in a state of permafrost which helps to prevent drainage of the area. During the summer, the park is filled with wildflowers, some of which have not been found anywhere else outside of the Arctic Circle. The park is named after Summit Lake, the headwaters of Bear Creek.

The Sawtooth is a jagged arête joining Mount Bierstadt to (eventually) Mount Blue Sky in the Front Range of central Colorado. The three points along this arête resemble the teeth of a saw, leading to its name. The southeast wall of the arête is the head of the cirque above Abyss Lake, while its northwest wall is the cirque at the head of a valley above Guanella Pass. The northeast end of the sawtooth joins directly to the shoulder of Mount Spalding, from which a second (and slightly less abrupt) arête leads southeast to Mount Blue Sky. This second arête divides the glacial valley of Abyss Lake to the southwest from the cirque of Summit Lake to the northeast.

Mount Bierstadt is a 14,065-foot-high (4,287 m) mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The fourteener is located in the Mount Evans Wilderness of Pike National Forest, 9.4 miles (15.1 km) south by east (bearing 171°) of the Town of Georgetown in Clear Creek County. It was named in honor of Albert Bierstadt, an American landscape painter who made the first recorded summit of the mountain in 1863.

Echo Lake Park is a park located along the Mount Evans Scenic Byway about 33.5 mi (54 km) west of Denver, Colorado. The park provides a stone shelter with picnic tables and barbecue grills on one end of the lake, and the 1926 Echo Lake Lodge (gift shop and restaurant service only) and an Arapaho National Forest campground are found at the other. Access to backpacking trails, including the Chicago Lakes trail and Lincoln Lakes trail, can be found adjacent to the lake. The park is part of the Denver Mountain Parks system.

The Xcel Energy Cabin Creek Fire occurred on October 2, 2007, at Xcel Energy’s pumped storage hydroelectric plant near Georgetown, Colorado, a small town forty-five miles west of Denver. The accident killed five workers and injured three. The incident is thought to be the result of botched work by a contractor (RPI Coating) and Xcel Energy's willingness to cut costs at the expense of safety.

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clear Creek County, Colorado. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in a map.There are 25 properties and districts listed on the National Register in the county, including 1 National Historic Landmark.     This National Park Service list is complete through NPS recent listings posted January 26, 2024.

Clear Creek County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,397. The county seat is Georgetown.