Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Arapaho National Forest (United States). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Echo Mountain Resort, Summit Lake Park, and Grays Peak. Also, be sure to include Torreys Peak in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Arapaho National Forest (Colorado).
Table of Contents
Echo Mountain Resort
Ski area in Clear Creek County, Colorado. Echo Mountain is a ski, snowboard and tubing area located in Clear Creek County, west of Evergreen, Colorado. It is the closest ski area to the Denver metro area.[1]
Address: 19285 Hwy. 103, 80452 Idaho Springs
Summit Lake Park
Park in Clear Creek County, Colorado. Summit Lake Park is a park located along Mount Evans Scenic Byway about 64 miles west of Denver, Colorado. The park is 160 acres in size and contains alpine tundra. Land to the east of the lake is in a state of permafrost which helps to prevent drainage of the area. During the summer, the park is filled with wildflowers, some of which have not been found anywhere else outside of the Arctic Circle. The park is named after Summit Lake, the headwaters of Bear Creek.[2]
Grays Peak
Summit in Colorado. Grays Peak is the tenth-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent 14,278-foot fourteener is the highest summit of the Front Range and the highest point on the Continental Divide and the Continental Divide Trail in North America. Grays Peak is located in Arapahoe National Forest, 3.9 miles southeast by east of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties. The peak is the highest point in both counties.
Grays Peak is one of 53 fourteeners (mountains of over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in elevation) in Colorado. Botanist Charles C. Parry made the first recorded ascent of the summit in 1861 and named the peak in honor of his botanist colleague Asa Gray. Gray did not see (and climb) the peak until 1872, eleven years later. Grays Peak is commonly mentioned in conjunction with adjacent Torreys Peak.[3]
Torreys Peak
Mountain in Colorado. Torreys Peak is a mountain in the Front Range region of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It is one of 53 fourteeners in Colorado. Its nearest major city is Denver. Torreys Peak is located along the Continental Divide, as well as the division between Clear Creek County and Summit County.[4]
Grizzly Peak
Mountain in Colorado. Grizzly Peak is a high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Also known as Grizzly Peak D, the 13,433-foot thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, 2.1 miles southeast by east of Loveland Pass, Colorado, United States, on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties. Its proximate parent peak is Torreys Peak.[5]
Mount Parnassus
Mountain in Colorado. Mount Parnassus is a high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 13,580-foot thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, 5.4 miles west-northwest of the Town of Silver Plume in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States.[6]
Mount Sniktau
Mountain in Colorado. Mount Sniktau is a high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 13,240-foot thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, 1.6 miles northeast of Loveland Pass in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States.[7]
Bard Peak
Mountain in Colorado. Bard Peak is a high and prominent mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 13,647-foot thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, 4.5 miles west-northwest of the Town of Silver Plume in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States.[8]
Parkview Mountain
Summit in Colorado. Parkview Mountain is the highest summit of the Rabbit Ears Range in the Rocky Mountains of North America. The mountain is on the Continental Divide in Routt National Forest about 3 miles southwest of Willow Creek Pass.
From the summit a climber can see both Middle Park to the south and North Park to the North, hence the name of the Peak.[9]
Clear Creek
Tributary in Colorado. Clear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River, approximately 66 miles long, in north central Colorado in the United States. The creek flows through Clear Creek Canyon in the Rocky Mountains directly west of Denver, descending through a long gorge to emerge at the town of Golden, finally ending in the Colorado Eastern Plains where it joins the South Platte. Clear Creek is unusual in that it is a stream named "creek" fed by a stream named "river"; typically "rivers" are fed by "creeks", and are larger bodies of water, although the nomenclature is ambiguous and there is no clear system. Fall River empties into Clear Creek along I-70 west of Idaho Springs, Colorado.[10]
Mount Edwards
Mountain in Colorado. Mount Edwards is a high mountain summit in the Rocky Mountains' Front Range of North America. The 13,856-foot thirteener is located in Arapaho National Forest, 7.6 miles southwest of the Town of Georgetown, Colorado, United States, on the Continental Divide between Clear Creek and Summit counties.[11]