Boreas Pass Auto Tour
Boreas Pass Auto Tour is a scenic drive in Colorado. Within Colorado it covers roughly 21 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Boreas Pass Auto Tour with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Boreas Pass Auto Tour is a 21.5-mile drive over an 11,481-foot continental divide crossing between Como and Breckenridge, Colorado, following the grade of a former narrow-gauge railroad. The pass carried Gold Rush stagecoaches in the 1860s under an earlier name before being renamed for Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, when the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad built its line over the summit in the 1880s. Trains ran the route for more than 50 years before the line was abandoned in 1937; after World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers rebuilt the grade into the automobile road drivers use today. Twelve numbered stops along the route, keyed to a printed auto-tour brochure, mark restored structures including old section-house cabins and a surviving water tank once used to refill steam locomotives. Because it crosses an 11,000-foot pass, the road closes at both ends whenever winter weather makes it impassable, so it's strictly a summer-and-fall drive between the old railroad town of Como and the resort town of Breckenridge.
- Como to Breckenridge
- 21.5 miles
- Boreas Pass (11,481 ft)
- former Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad grade
- railroad abandoned 1937
- 12-stop interpretive auto tour
Plan a drive on Boreas Pass Auto Tour →
About this drive
This is a scenic drive — a road worth taking for the views and the journey itself rather than the quickest line between two points.
Where to Stay along Boreas Pass Auto Tour
3 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of Boreas Pass Auto Tour.
Campsite and lodging links are affiliate links — booking through them may earn Road Sorties a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Recreation.gov links are not affiliate links.