Pike & San Isabel National Forests
Cimarron & Comanche National Grasslands

USDA Forest Service
Pike & San Isabel
National Forests
Cimarron & Comanche
National Grasslands
2840 Kachina Drive
Pueblo, CO 81008
719-553-1400

Telephone for the
Hearing Impaired
719-553-1404

Guanella Pass Scenic and Historic Byway

This byway is one of the most popular and scenic drives on the Pike National Forest.  It provides a refreshing half-day auto tour loop beginning and ending in Denver.

*NOTE: Guanella Pass Road is NOT completely plowed during winter. Park County and Clear Creek County only plow up to the last residence during winter. Please call the South Platte office at 303-275-5610 to obtain the latest road information available.

The Guanella Pass turnoff is less than one hour west of Denver on US Highway 285, in the town of Grant.  Large RV/s are not recommended on this mountain byway.  Most of this 22-mile alpine route is contained in the Pike and Arapaho National Forests.  A wide variety of recreation opportunities are found along the route.  Picnicking, camping, hiking, photography, nature study, hunting, and fishing are a few of the activities enjoyed by visitors.  Please drive slowly and enjoy the trip.  This road is not actively maintained during the winter.  Hiking opportunities include the upper trailhead for the Rosalie Trail #603, Three Mile Creek Trail #635, Abyss Lake Trail #602 , the trail to Mt. Bierstadt, all in the Mt. Evans Wilderness area, and the trail to Square Top Lakes.

From an elevation of 8,500 feet above sea level in Grant, Guanella Pass winds upward through Geneva Creek Canyon.  The waters of Geneva Creek support a mixed forest of spruce, fir, pine, aspen and cottonwood trees along the valley bottom.  Between Grant and Falls Hill, Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep make their homes in the rocky crags east of the road.  The orange-colored rocks in the bed of Geneva Creek are the result of high concentrations of iron carried by the creek from old mines upstream.

Geneva Creek Picnic Ground (1.7 miles) and Whiteside Campground (2.4 miles) are northwest of Grant.  Threemile trailhead is the first of several trails, that provide hiking access into the Mount Evans Wilderness Area.  One mile up the road is the Tumbling River Ranch, an outstanding guest ranch that has been in operation for over fifty years.  Four and a half miles northwest of Grant is the first set of switchbacks that take one up the face of a rock dam of a terminal glacial moraine.  During the last glacial epoch, rock debris was transported down Scott Gomer Creek Valley to the east.  As this glacier converged with the Geneva Creek glacier, it created this 300 vertical feet dam.

Geneva Park opens as the roadway rounds the last curve of Falls Hill. Abyss Lake trailhead, Burning Bear Campground and the Mt. Evans Wilderness Area are on the east and Duck Creek Picnic grounds, Geneva Park Campgrounds and the Buno Gulch dispersed camp area are on the west.  Geneva Park was created when large quantities of stream sediments were deposited behind the Falls Hill moraine.

Heading north from Geneva Park, the road follows Duck Creek toward the summit.  Just below the summit is Alpendorf on Duck Lake, a privately owned mountain retreat.  Two miles above Duck Lake, the summit of Guanella pass (11,666) affords a superb panoramic view.  To the east, Mt. Bierstadt (14,060) and the jagged ridge or (arête) north from Mt. Bierstadt known as the Sawtooth.  Valley glaciers created this dramatic feature during two epochs of geologic history.  The north side of the pass will descend to Georgetown and Highway I-70 for the return trip to Denver.