Blue Sky Summit Lake Trailhead

Front Range

Road Difficulty

0 Paved Road

Location12,850 feet
39.59882, -105.64039

Driving Directions

Take Exit 240 at Idaho Springs on Interstate 70. Drive south on Colorado 103 for 13.5 miles to Echo Lake. Show your reservation and drive 9 miles up the Mt. Blue Sky road (Colorado 5) to the signed Summit Lake parking area.

RESERVATION REQUIRED
A reservation is required to park at Summit Lake and must be purchased through recreation.gov PRIOR to the day of your hike. It's $22. Tickets are based on a 2-Hour entry window that you select; however, the earliest entry window you can select is 7:00-9:00am. If you want to start a hike earlier, you still need to have a ticket, so reserve a 7:00-9:00am slot, print it out and display it on your dash when you drive in early. Prior to 7am you should find the gate open unless the weather is bad and they close the road.

More Information at the USFS

Trailhead Status Updates

Most Recent Update 9/2/2026:

Thought I’d share that I hiked the route on 9/2/2026 and unintentionally appear to have hiked the West Gully Trail instead of the West Ridge Trail over Mr. Spalding even though I intended to complete the West Ridge Trail. There were about 8 other people who separately did the same thing unintentionally including one with a Garmin. Not sure where we lost the Mt. Spalding trail, but wanted to pote...

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Winter Access

Closed at Echo Lake Lodge.

Trailhead Facilities & Fees

Parking: Reservation required - see notes.
Camping: No camping on the Blue Sky road.
Restrooms: Yes
Fees: Yes

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