One of Colorado’s most iconic roads will be closed this summer.

Officials announced closing Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway last fall to reconstruct an upper stretch of North America’s highest paved road. From the U.S. Forest Service’s entrance station by Echo Lake to the summit above 14,000 feet, the road will be barred to drivers, hikers and cyclists as crews continue paving, stabilizing, improving drainage and revegetating.

The focus is a three-quarters-of-a-mile stretch around Summit Lake near 13,000 feet. There, researchers and engineers have found the road precariously swelling from freeze-thaw cycles and creating harmful erosion.

Explained a Federal Highway Administration spokesperson in an email: “The roadway was originally built across an area of shallow groundwater, which caused disruption to both surface and subsurface water flow, leading to degradation of the underlying permafrost. This caused major damage to the roadway, including settlement and cracking.”

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The goal is to finish work this fall, ahead of Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway’s wintertime closure. The road is expected to reopen for summer 2026.

“I’ll be crossing my fingers,” said Chuck Harmon, mayor of Idaho Springs, a gateway to the drive.

He recognized the challenge mentioned by the Federal Highway Administration spokesperson: “a short construction season and severe/extreme weather with little warning.”

The longer the road is closed, the longer local restaurants and shops would be missing out, Harmon worried. He called the scenic byway “a significant asset” in terms of tourism. Officials have reported Mount Blue Sky drawing 200,000 people in recent years.

“It’s going to be a hard summer. I think that our visitor centers are going to get inundated with people frustrated that it’s not open,” said Cassandra Patton, Clear Creek County Tourism Bureau director.

“At the same time, if you’ve been up there, you know that section that goes high up and down, and it’s just a washboard, and it can be quite dangerous. And so it has to be done. But yeah, I think it will create some impacts.”

Impacts beyond tourism, she said.

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From Echo Lake, some sturdy explorers might be enticed to climb to Summit Lake and on to the mountaintop free of traffic, fumes and crowds. Patton suspects some will be wrongly enticed.

“The ultimate fear is that we’re going to have people go up there in flip-flops, in T-shirts, and they’re going to wander around and head on up (to the summit) not realizing they’re in for a 16.6-mile round-trip expedition,” she said.

She said educational signage was in the works for Echo Lake, listing backcountry requirements and warning about a lack of cell coverage and search and rescue.

Patton said she hoped tourists would be drawn to other drives in the area, such as Guanella and Loveland passes. Or maybe more would be drawn to the other paved road to a 14,000-foot summit.

Pikes Peak Highway-America’s Mountain Manager Skyler Rorabaugh said his team is preparing for more traffic this summer.

“It’s really hard to put a number on something that’s unknown, but we’ve tried to factor in anywhere from a 20% to 30% increase,” he said.

Timed-entry reservations will continue for visitors wanting to drive themselves, while this summer will see more stops along Pikes Peak Highway for people riding the shuttle, including Glen Cove Inn and Devils Playground. Last summer, the shuttle went straight to the top and back to the mile 7 parking area.

It was an important summer for observation, Rorabaugh said. “We know when we can open up more (timed-entry reservations) and when we can’t.”

He added: “Our goal is to not have to turn away anyone who wants to visit the Summit Visitor Center and all the destinations along the Pikes Peak Highway. … Hopefully we’ve augmented and enhanced our ability to get people up to the summit.”

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Season passholders can drive the highway without a reservation before 9 a.m. In a summer of potentially more demand, Rorabaugh stressed the early start.

Back in Idaho Springs, Harmon sees Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway’s closure compounding with ongoing construction and delays on Interstate 70. Traffic through the mountain corridor has reportedly been 10% down in recent months.

“I think it’s clear evidence that the consumer may be pulling back a bit,” Harmon said.

But like an expanded I-70 corridor that’s long been sought, there would be a benefit to the scenic byway repairs, he said. “I think we’re going to suffer some additional short-term pain for some very long-term gain.”