Guanella Pass Road
Colorado Scenic Byway 23 mi in Colorado.
About the Guanella Pass Road
For a quick study in Rocky Mountain eco-systems, you could hardly find better instruction than here. This well-settled road leap-frogs the steep divide between the South Platte and Clear Creek watersheds, passing through a succession of distinct environments. The lower elevations are green and wet, thick stands of spruce, fir, aspen, and pine rising along cascading creeks. Higher up, the streams snake through broad meadows, succoring thirsty mammals, nesting birds, and the industrious beaver, The road crests well above timberline, where every spring the grasses and flowers stubbornly renew, and the fragile tundra thaws and blossoms. This old logging and mining area flanked by Mounts Bierstadt and Evans boasts two of the state's best-preserved Victorian towns, Georgetown and Silver Plume. Guanella Pass Road is seasonally closed on or about Nov. 26, and reopens on Memorial Day weekend at Naylor Lake on the Clear Creek County side and Burning Bear Campground on the Park County side.
Colorado Department of Transportation's own description, in its words. Byway page on codot.gov.
Designations: Colorado State Scenic Byway, National Forest Scenic Byway.
Camping along the byway
- Mile 3 · 2.2 mi offWest Chicago Creek · Forest Service · 16 sites · reservable
- Mile 5 · on the roadClear Lake Campground · Forest Service · 8 sites · reservable
- Mile 8 · on the roadGuanella Pass · Forest Service · 18 sites · reservable
- Mile 17 · on the roadGeneva Park Campground · Forest Service · 26 sites · reservable
- Mile 17 · 4.6 mi offHandcart · Forest Service · 4 sites · reservable
- Mile 17 · 4.8 mi offHall Valley · Forest Service · 4 sites · reservable
- Mile 17 · 4.8 mi offHall Valley Campground · Forest Service
- Mile 18 · on the roadBurning Bear Campground · Forest Service · 13 sites · reservable
- Mile 21 · 4.9 mi offTimberline Group Campground · Forest Service
Public campgrounds within 5 miles of the road as the crow flies, in order along the byway; each one's page has its facts, season and weather by month.
About this page's facts
The line is the Federal Highway Administration's scenic byways layer (HEPGIS, a snapshot of 2022-06-24, a US government work), cut at the state line and simplified for the map; the length is the line's. The designation is the program's own: the national tiers from FHWA's America's Byways roster, the rest from the layer's designation field. Road conditions, closures and seasonal gates change: check the agency's own page and the state's road conditions before you go.