Indeed closed to motor vehicles only.

I rode Mt Evans from Idaho Springs on the 13th September. At the Echo Lake turnoff there was a road grader coming down after having just cleared a landslide higher. Spoke with the driver who was about to lock this lower gate as they were needed elsewhere due to the floods; he said I could continue but would be on my own. Continued up to be passed by a ranger just before the Summit Lake gate that is locked on the Labor day weekend. I stopped to briefly speak with the ranger who confirmed that I was okay to continue, so I climbed under the gate and continued to the top.

Other than the ranger, I had no other vehicles on the road back down to Echo Lake; so I could take the whole road on the descent and miss all the potholes!

During my three week holiday I rode in Colorado as well as California and Arizona, I ticked off the following during my 6 rides in CO:

• Grand Mesa (both sides starting Grand Junction side).
• Independence pass (both sides starting Aspen).
• Copper Triangle clockwise from Leadville
• Trail ridge rd (both sides from Grand Lake. This happened to be the day of the Front Range floods when this was the only road out of Estes Park! ).
• Mt Evans.
• Pikes Peak

Of these CO rides Pikes Peak was by far the hardest. It is now open to bikes year round and definitely worth riding... It is only a few metres lower than Mt Evans, but with far steeper gradients towards the top. Climbing 10.6% gradient with an estimated 72% of sea level FTP is tough!http://www.brentacol.com/gradient_pics/pikes.png

Mt Evans would be second due to its length, but a much milder gradient meant it was easier to keep a constant tempo.