Juniper Pass
(including the Mount Evans Summit Road)
There comes a time every spring, when Denver area cycling
clubs - one by one - think the time is ripe for a ride
over Juniper Pass. One recent write up of such a ride in
the DBTC schedule went something like this: For breakfast
we will have Lookout
Mountain (a shoulder approach to the slightly more
direct Mount Vernon Canyon shown in the profile), for
lunch Squaw Pass, then for
dinner Juniper Pass and for desert Floyd
Hill. That just about sums up such a loop ride, the
only thing to clarify is, that the I70-Chief
Hosa exit shoulder summit is really the highest point
and not Lookout Mtn.
Sometimes the time that such a ride appears in the schedule is May. Often a cold wind blows but the views are crystal clear and Mount Evans as well as the Continental Divide still seems covered in a long lasting blanket of snow. Sometimes the time is June. Then it can be hot already and the sun burns down relentlessly on the lower climb. But the altitude soon offers relief. And then sometimes the time is July, when often the monsoon has started, and the riders are caught by relentless downpours during the descent. And then, on other days during the same months, the weather is just perfect. You just have to pick your days. Juniper Pass is the highest paved "home pass" with two separate climbing approaches that connect directly to Denver. Wherever you live in the Denver area, it is at least theoretically possible to leave from your house in the morning - and cross the pass, arriving back at your place by the evening, using for transport nothing but a bicycle.
Such a day long journey traverses along Chief and Squaw
Mountains, far above the valley carved by Clear Creek, and
on eye level with the mountains of the Continental Divide.
It some ways it doesn't feel like a pass. It doesn't cross
from one view shed into another, or at least you never get
any far downvalley views when you are in the northern
viewshed. The road that doesn't feel like a pass, really
crosses one pass and just touches another. Just to add
another paradox, neither pass is at the highest altitude
of the road. That comes later.
Approaches
 From South East. Biking clubs often
start their rides up Juniper Pass from Bergen Park. This is
already 2440 above the lowest point on the profile: a
convenient place on the Clear Creek bike path, still about
another 200ft above downtown Denver at the confluence of
Cherry Creek and the Platte River.
Climbing continues uninterrupted. The road
becomes more scenic and the contouring traverse starts in
earnest. I seem to remember less of the climbing aspect of the
road from this point onwards, and instead tend to remember the
views, the clouds and the light. Let the pictures do the
talking. Juniper Pass itself is located at the Picnic area
with the same name. The highest altitude of the road is
reached about half a mile east of there.
The turnoff to West Chicago Creek signals the
beginning of a series of switchbacks. Glimpses of the Mount
Evans Massif can be caught between the trees. Echo Lake marks
the turnoff to the Mount Evans summit road. Alternatively you
can eat lunch there too. It is still 500 feet below the
highest point of the Juniper Pass road. Many riders from
Bergen Park also us this as a turn around point, for an out
and back ride. 
Sidetrip to Mount Evans: Calling a ride to the top of Mount Evans a
sidetrip from Juniper Pass is obviously an understatement. But
I decided to group all one-way climbs with the nearest pass,
and that is Juniper Pass. After two switchbacks connected with long
straight ramps the road climbs out of the forest at a large
grove of Bristlecone Pine trees. A visitor center has been
erected at this popular stopping place. The forest ends and
the rock scape begins. The road ahead can be seen as a
straight line slicing up the loaf shaped mountains. You
suspect a saddle where the road cut ends. But this is just the
point where the next view shed appears, and it the next view
shed after that is also very similar. But now there is an
added attraction, the oval shaped Lincoln Lake below. The road
embankment forms a sheer cliff without a guard rail at the
point The road was washed out here during the winter of 2015.
Now the road is repaired with a flawlessly, smooth new
surface. But so far there is nothing separating the road from
the depths below. This is one place where descending on the
left side of the road seems common sensical. This next slice up the breadloaf is the last
one. The road descends about 200ft to Summit Lake. The frost
cracks approaching the lake are the worst here on the entire
road. They cracks are curved like miniature canyons and their
edges are rounded like a fluid substance. Here a short unpaved
path leads to an overlook over the Chicago Lakes below. Foot
trails lead up Mount Evans and down to Chicago Lakes. The last part of the climb starts and
surprisingly the road surface gets better again with more
elevation. After two switchbacks the viewshed changes to the
south, and by the time a cyclist makes it to this point the
light has invariably changed to a flat frontal light, so that
it's hard to make out distinct far features on this side This point is identfied as Campion Pass in
Helmuth's book "Passes of Colorado". The road
crosses this saddle between Mount Evans and Mount Epaulet
above the lowest point of the saddle. There is absolutely no
downhill involved as far as the road is concerned. It is named
for a surveyor who died here of exposure during construction
of the road. Nine more switchbacks and a couple of curves
lead to the top. During my last ride up here, in October when
the road was already closed to motor vehicles, I encountered
many mountain sheep here, on the way up as well as down. The
two middle switchbacks on the west side afford great views
onto Grey's and Torrey's Peaks behind the cliffs of the Evans
Massif. The top comes up surprisingly and seems like
it's not reaching the top of the mountain itself. Acutally it
isn't. This 100ft pile of rocks, which is the real summit has
no established track to the top and actually blocks the view
to the north west. I imagine that was the plan because it also
blocks the wind. Instead there are "pay-ruins" from
a formerly magnificent summit house, located on a lower knoll
of rocks to the east (more details in the historical notes
below) It is safe to assume that the "hang from the
handlebars" type bike rack for 10 bikes in this parking
lot is the highest bike rack in North America. The best time for this ride is the very short
period, starting after the fall closure of the road (for motor
vehicles) and the first snow. All the pictures on the right
and in the slide show were taken during that time. Historical Notes Modern Roads: The road from Denver to
the summit of Mount Evans was achieved in steps, and most
steps were preceded by a political battle. To get the ball
rolling the Denver Parks system decided to build a series of
scenic automobile loops for Denver residents. One of these was
Loop G, and the first leg from Genesee
Saddle (today's I70 Genesee exit) reached closeby Bergen
Park in 1915. Subsequent political battles about a road that
"starts nowhere, goes nowhere and never gets there"
( a quote from the Commissioner of Improvments WFR Mills)
delayed the start of road construction to Squaw
Pass to the spring of 1918. The plan was to make Mount
Evans a national park in order to get federal aid for road
construction. This was a time of bitter animosity between the
National Forest Sevice and the yet to be formed National Park
Service, and the Mount Evans National Park never came into
existence. In any case, it would have been the "Monte
Rosa" National Park, named by the famous painter of
Romatic American landscapes, Albert Bierstadt. Rosa was
somebody else's wife whom he married subsequently. But it was
also an allusion to the highest peak in the Swiss alps by the
same name. The road from Soda Pass (today named Squaw
Pass) to Echo Lake was finally started in 1919 and took two
years to cross Juniper Pass and reach Echo Lake. Instead of
the National Park Service the newly formed "Bureau of
Public Roads" picked up part of the costs. The road to the summit from Echo Lake was surveyed again two years later, in 1923. It took another 7 years till the last switchback to the summit was completed by hand. The ruins on the top look at first sight like
something constructed by the Civil Conservation Corps after
the Big Depression. They have that unmistakable solid look.
But actually the Crest House was constructed much later,
during 1940-41 through private initiative. The story goes that a German immigrant, Justus
Roehling, wanted to impress his girlfriend and future wife
with a "castle in the sky". Financial backing came
from the owner of the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs and
a future mayor of Denver. Roehling, his wife and workers lived
in tents on the summit during the construction. During the
winter of 1940, still in the construction stage, much of the
glass and woodwork was destroyed. In 1941 the repairs took
place and the building opened as a restaurant, gift shop, rest
rooms, observation deck and emergency oxygen dispenser, which
sounds much more practical than "impressing your
girlfriend with a castle in the sky". The center piece of
the building was a two story star-shaped glass and steel
platform. The outside was completed with nearby rocks that fit
perfectly into surroundings, because they were the
surroundings. The original lease stated that the property
reverts to the National Forest Service in 1969, and so it did. After another 10 years, In 1979, the building
burned down because an employee of an Evergreen propane
company did not secure a safety valve. The National Forest
Service only succeeded in getting less than 25 percent of the
estimated 2 million dollars in replacement costs from the
propane company.
Cycling-Racing: A bike race from Idaho
Springs to the summit of Mount Evans was first held in 1962.
It was first named the Mount Evans HIll Climb, and later
renamed the Bob Cook hill climb, who won the race five times
between 1975 and 1980 and later died of cancer. Up to 2015 the
race was only canceled twice due to weather. The winner
covered the 27.4~44.1km miles, climbing the 6590ft~2008m (not
counting the roughly 200ft of "rolling hills along the
way) in a time ranging from 2:28hrs in 1962 to 1:48hrs in
2015. To compare this elevation gain with just one
famous pass in the alps, Passo Stelvio: In order to loose 2000
meters from the summit you would be 40.5km down on the north
side, somewhere between Schlanders and Laas, and 46 km down
the south side. This seems comparable to the 44.1km from Idaho
Springs. But the slope here is more uniform over the entire
distance, while you have to reach well down into the valley
approaches on Passo Stelvio
to get this elevation gain. Cycling-Touring: (<Independence
Pass|Nine Mile Gap Summit>):
The Juniper/ Squaw Pass combination was once part of the
Denver Post's "Ride the Rockies". Between 86 and 05
the tour crossed the passes on the last day of the 88 tour
when returning from Idaho Springs to Golden. The Triple Bypass ride is another organized
ride (by Team Evergreen), that people have loved to use as an
incentive to train hard for several decades. It ends in Vail
and goes over Juniper Pass, Loveland
Pass and Vail Pass.
 |
When
starting from Bergen Park there is little time to warm up. The
climbing starts right away. Squaw Pass Road starts with a
mighty ramp up into the forested mountains. Using dirt roads
there are many higher access points onto the Squaw Pass Road,
making many shoulder summits. These are 
