Summit Lake Park, Historic district and natural landmark at 3963 meters, Colorado.
Summit Lake Park is a protected alpine area on the summit plateau of Mount Blue Sky in Colorado, sitting at around 13,000 feet (about 4,000 meters) above sea level. The park covers alpine tundra, a small glacial lake, and rocky outcrops, and is listed both on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Natural Landmark.
The area was added to the Denver Mountain Parks system in 1924, a network the city of Denver began assembling in the late 1800s to protect natural land around the city. It later received National Natural Landmark status in 1965.
Summit Lake Park sits on the summit plateau of Mount Blue Sky and is home to plants found almost nowhere else outside the Arctic. Walking through the tundra, visitors can see low-growing mats of vegetation clinging to the rocky ground.
The park is reached via Mount Blue Sky Road, which becomes partly unpaved at higher elevations and can be difficult in bad weather. Warm layers are a must, since conditions at this altitude can shift quickly and without warning.
The eastern side of the park contains permafrost, making it one of the very few spots in the continental United States where this frozen ground condition occurs outside the Arctic. This layer of permanently frozen soil shapes which plants and animals can survive there.
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