Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
4:30 in the morning. The gate on the Pikes Peak Highway swings open in the dark, and a line of cars starts crawling up 19 miles of switchbacks toward a summit that sits at 14,115 feet. Nobody up there is going to work. They are all chasing the same thing. Dawn at the top of America's Mountain.
That is Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. And here is the part people miss. You can do it twice in one day.
Pikes Peak runs a handful of these special openings every year. Five of them this year, actually. July 12, July 18, Aug. 1, Sept. 27 and Oct. 13. Most people pick one, catch the sunrise, and call it a life goal checked off. But Aug. 1 is different, because the mountain is also throwing a Sunset Closing event that same evening. The highway reopens at 6:45 p.m. for personal vehicles or the shuttle, and you get to watch the light drop off the Front Range from 14,115 feet.
Why Aug. 1 specifically? Look, this is not a random Saturday. Aug. 1 is Colorado Day. That is the date Colorado came into the Union as the 38th state back on Aug. 1, 1876. It also happens to be National Mountain Climbing Day, which, on a 14,000-foot peak, is a little on the nose. And 2026 is a big one. It marks 150 years of Colorado statehood and the 250th birthday of the whole country. So the mountain is basically saying, if there was ever a day to see the sun come up and go down from the roof of Colorado, this is it.
Skyler Rorabaugh, who manages Pikes Peak, has called these sunrise openings a chance to witness "the breathtaking beauty of dawn at 14,115 feet." On the 150th, you get the bookend version.
Here is the logistics part, and it matters, because you cannot just show up.
The Gateway opens at 4:30 a.m. Last entry is 6:30 a.m. Two hours, that is your window. And you need to buy ahead. There is a timed-entry permit per vehicle, plus admission, and there are no tickets sold at the Gateway. None. Show up without one and you are turning around in the dark, which would be a rough morning.
Peak Radar listed the pricing like this. The timed-entry permit runs
New this year, there is a shuttle. It leaves from the North Pole and Santa's Workshop parking lot, which sits 0.3 miles before the Pikes Peak entrance, and it runs straight to the summit. Nice option if you do not love the idea of driving 19 miles of mountain road half asleep at 4:30 in the morning.
One thing to know. During the sunrise events, the North Slope Recreation Area is closed. Not accessible. So if that was part of your plan, scratch it for the day.
I cannot say this loudly enough. The summit runs about 30 degrees colder than town, and before dawn it is even worse. People drive up from Colorado Springs in a t-shirt because it is August and warm at the base, and then they are standing at 14,115 feet in the dark absolutely freezing. Warm layers. Real ones. The kind you would wear in January.
Good news is the Summit Visitor Center café and gift shop are open, so there is hot coffee and a warm room waiting when your hands stop working.
If you are taking your own car, Visit Colorado Springs has two pieces of advice worth following. Turn off the air conditioning on the way up, because that engine is working hard at altitude and does not need the extra load. And on the way down, use engine braking instead of riding your brakes the whole 19 miles. Your brakes will thank you, and honestly so will the ranger at the bottom checking brake temps.
Quick heads up if you are planning a summit trip in August and Aug. 1 does not work. Skip Saturday, Aug. 9. That morning the highway delays its summit opening until 9 a.m. for the Pikes Peak Cycling Hill Climb, presented by The Broadmoor and the Anschutz Foundation. Great event to watch, but not the morning to plan a leisurely drive to the top.
We have watched a lot of Colorado bucket-list stuff get overhyped. This is not that. A sunrise and a sunset from 14,115 feet, on the exact 150th anniversary of the day Colorado became a state, is the kind of thing you tell people about for years.
Buy the permit early, pack the coat you think is too warm, and set two alarms. Buckle up.