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Earth satellite image of route
Rating: 3/10 The Mt. Bross trail's claim to fame is that it is the highest road in the state (second highest in the country), at 14,172 feet. Yep, that's right. Higher than Pikes Peak's 14,110' summit and higher than where the Mt. Evans Highway stops at 14,130'. You have to climb the last 134' to reach Evans' summit. The Mt. Bross road is just about as easy as the other two as well. Well, almost. This trail is rated a 5 in Massy/Wilson's Colorado's 4WD Adventures book, but I find their ratings to be a little inconsistent at times. In truth, this is a well maintained road all the way to the summit and the shelves aren't that narrow, either, so I feel a different rating is in order. It is the awesome mountain scenery from the top that makes this route shine, though. Views to a number of Colorado's 14ers and other mountains as you'd expect from being at this elevation. I didn't do a great job of capturing the beauty on this day, however. Being that there were rain storms all around, I didn't want to play for that long here as lightning was a possible threat, though it didn't come until we were at about timberline on the way down. You don't feel all that comfortable when your head is the highest thing around, if you know what I'm saying! I drove this trail along with Alan (the usual suspect and partner on a number of other trail rides in the summer of 2003) and Ric and Edie from Kansas City, who we were giving a little tour of the state during that weekend. Anyway, we spent limited time on the summit, so I didn't take all that many pictures. The next time I'm up here, I'll be sure to take more to add to this gallery, without a doubt. I was very happy to be in the confines of a vehicle
on this afternoon to stay out of the rain and heavy sleet that started
up top, along with the lightning factor as I mentioned. The usual peak
baggers were out in force to climb the trio of 14ers here, Lincoln, Bross
and Democrat, so we had to dodge a number of them. Being that most of
them feel that vehicles shouldn't be up in the high air with them, we
ran into a number of unfriendly folks who didn't return our waves. They
were, after all, uh, walking on a ROAD! I do have an updated gallery that I will install on a later date. |
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