Much more to Mount Evans than just its summit and roadway

CLEAR CREEK COUNTY -- They say "getting there is half the fun."

But let's face it, climbing to the top of a "14er" -- one of Colorado's 53 peaks with elevations above 14,000 feet -- ain't easy.

Unless, of course, it's done from the comfort of the family car.

At Mount Evans, just 35 miles as the crow flies from the steps of the Colorado State Capitol building in downtown Denver, armchair mountaineers "bag" their peak by driving the highest paved road in North America -- a serpentine, 28-mile-long stretch of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway that begins at Idaho Springs.

Seventeen switchbacks, a nearly 7,000-foot elevation gain and three breathtakingly beautiful high-country ecosystems later, visitors arrive at Mount Evans' 14,130-foot-elevation summit parking lot. Here, they are rewarded by panoramic views of Colorado's Front Range and Denver-metro area; the South Park region; the Continental Divide and the Gore, Mosquito, Sawatch, Sangre de Cristo and Never Summer subranges of the Rocky Mountains; and a half-dozen 14ers, including Pikes Peak -- the state's only other 14,000-plus-foot peak with a vehicle route to the top.

Mountain goats scramble over boulders and gaze from precarious rock perches as more adventurous visitors continue onward and upward, following a quarter-mile-long trail to the peak's official, 14,264-foot summit.

But Mount Evans is more than its highway -- or its summit.

Its slopes are covered with montane forests of juniper, ponderosa pine and aspen; with subalpine expanses of fir, Engelmann spruce and bristlecone pine; and with treeless alpine tundra. And its route is lined with attractions like scenic Echo Lake and the Echo Lake Lodge, built in 1926 using locally harvested timber cut at a sawmill that was moved and reassembled on-site specifically for the construction.

Located between subalpine forest and alpine tundra, the Mount Goliath Natural Area is a wildflower-strewn wilderness that contains North America's northernmost large stand of bristlecone pines. These trees are the oldest living single organisms on Earth: Some of Mount Evans' bristlecones are more than 1,600 years old.

The Dos Chappell Nature Center houses exhibits illustrating ways in which the bristlecone and other plants and animals adapt to, and thrive in, Colorado's punishing, high-altitude environments. One explains what happens when forest meets tundra in a transition zone where cold, snow and raging winds batter trees into gnarled and twisted shapes called "krummholz" -- a German word meaning "crooked wood" -- and create "flag trees" that grow only on the side opposite prevailing winds.

Hiking trails and eight different alpine gardens, maintained by the U.S. Forest Service and Denver Botanic Gardens, provide additional close-up looks at the natural area's unusual flora.

Shaped by Ice Age glaciers and nestled beneath sheer cliffs at an elevation of 12,830 feet, Summit Lake supports plants usually found above the Arctic Circle and is the site of the only known permafrost in the United States, outside of Alaska. A short path on the south shore of this national natural landmark leads to an overlook with outstanding views of Chicago Lakes 1,000 feet below.

So don't be in too great a hurry to reach the summit of Mount Evans. This really is a place where the journey is every bit as important -- and memorable and magnificent -- as the destination.