Guanella Pass Scenic Byway

Guanella Pass is a drive out of Georgetown rather than a place in it: Clear Creek County Road 381 leaves from the south end of town and climbs over the pass into Park County, ending at Highway 285 in Grant. The county describes it as a former burro trail, now paved for its 24 miles (the Town’s visitor site says 22) and passable in a regular sedan in summer, climbing above treeline with views of Mount Bierstadt, Mount Blue Sky and Argentine Pass; many side roads need high clearance and four-wheel drive. The Forest Service’s byway page gives the summit as 11,700 feet and says to park only in signed pullouts and trailhead lots. Stops the county names on the Georgetown side: Silver Dale (1.5 miles up), Leavenworth Creek Road (2 miles), Clear Lake (6 miles), and the Naylor Lake and Silver Dollar Lake trails (11 miles); the Forest Service’s Guanella Pass Campground has 18 sites, and the Bierstadt Trailhead is at the top.

The county closes the summit section after Thanksgiving, at the Naylor Lake intersection 0.8 miles below the summit, where a winter parking lot serves snowshoers and skiers, and reopens it on or about Memorial Day weekend; in 2026 it opened early, on Thursday 16 April. In winter it plows the road to the Cabin Creek hydroelectric plant, about six miles out, the first day after a snowfall and to the closure gate on the second or third. On busy autumn weekends the county enforces no-parking zones, fines illegally parked cars $87.50, tows cars left on the roadway, and may briefly close the road to more traffic; it suggests coming Monday to Thursday, since weekend days see about 2.5 times as many visitors, and checking cotrip.org for I-70 and Highway 285 delays.

Facts from Clear Creek County’s Guanella Pass Information page and the Forest Service’s Guanella Pass Scenic Byway page (https://www.fs.usda.gov/r02/arp/recreation/guanella-pass-scenic-byway, last updated 11 August 2026), read 10 October 2026. The county’s road information line is 303-679-2422, extension 2.