Mount Bierstadt

Mount Bierstadt is the most climbed fourteener in Colorado: a 14,060-foot summit above Guanella Pass with a trailhead at 11,669 feet, a boardwalk across the famous willows, a built trail up the west slopes, and a short Class 2 scramble at the top, about 6 miles round trip with 2,850 feet of gain. It is where most people climb their first fourteener, and the Guanella Pass lots are full before dawn every summer weekend.

From the Guanella Pass trailhead, the trail drops slightly and crosses the willow flats of Scott Gomer Creek on a boardwalk and bridges, the section that used to take an hour of wading and now takes 20 minutes. It then climbs the west slopes of Bierstadt on long switchbacks through tundra and rock, with the Sawtooth ridge to Mount Blue Sky on the left.

Near 13,800 feet the trail steepens onto the summit ridge, and the last few hundred feet are Class 2 on big boulders with a few short scrambling steps to the top at 14,060 feet. The Sawtooth traverse to Mount Blue Sky, the peak renamed from Mount Evans in 2023, is Class 3 with exposure and a long day. Return the same way.

Guanella Pass is 11 miles south of Georgetown on the Guanella Pass Road, paved from the I-70 side, and 13 miles north of Grant on US 285. The two lots at the pass hold about 100 cars and are full by 5 AM on summer weekends; Guanella Pass Road is a county road and parking along it is prohibited and ticketed. Clear Creek County has run summer weekend shuttles from Georgetown in some years; check before you go. No fee, but the Mount Evans Wilderness requires a free self-issued permit, filled out at the box at the trailhead. The peak across the Sawtooth was renamed Mount Blue Sky in 2023; the wilderness keeps the old name until Congress changes it. Toilets at the trailhead.

Dogs must be on a hand-held leash at all times, a wilderness rule the Forest Service posts at the trailhead, and the summit boulders and the crowds are hard on them. Not a kid hike, though it is the fourteener where fit older kids most often start. Carry three liters; there is no water past the creek. The trailhead is above 11,600 feet and the climb feels harder than the numbers for people coming up from Denver that morning. Microspikes into early July. Georgetown has the services and the Guanella Pass campground is on the road. The Mount Bierstadt guide covers the route in detail, and the Guanella Pass guide covers the road and the other trails on it.