Golden Gate Canyon Dawn + Mount Evans and Squaw Pass

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Denver

   Denver earns its nickname honestly: one of the steps of the State Capitol is marked as exactly one mile above sea level, and from the city the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains fills the western horizon like a jagged wall. The city spreads across the high plains at the foot of the mountains, a big, sunny, sprawling place where the snowy peaks are visible from almost every street on a clear day.

   Read the complete Denver write-up.

2. 2. Golden

   Golden is where Denver's western edge hits the mountains. The town sits at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon, squeezed between the twin flat-topped bulks of North and South Table Mountain, and its main street still looks like a western town that grew up respectable. Golden was the territorial capital of Colorado in the 1860s before Denver took over, and it has kept a few reminders, including the banner that arches over Washington Avenue welcoming visitors, and the Colorado School of Mines, the college that trains mining and petroleum engineers. Coors Brewing has made beer here since 1873, and the brewery still dominates one end of town, with a tour that finishes at a tasting room.

   Read the complete Golden write-up.

3. 3. Evans

   There is a small irony in stopping at Evans on the way to Mount Evans. The town, on the South Platte River just south of Greeley, and the mountain west of Denver were both named for John Evans, the second territorial governor of Colorado. The mountain was officially renamed Mount Blue Sky in 2023, partly because Evans was governor when the Sand Creek Massacre took place in 1864, when US troops killed more than two hundred Cheyenne and Arapaho people, most of them women, children and old men. The town has kept its name.

   Read the complete Evans write-up.

4. 4. Denver

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Denver write-up.