Sumner Lake
Edwin Carter
Eagle Nest Lake
Dos Chappell Nature Center, Mount Evans Scenic Byway
This compact (750 sq. ft.) visitor facility (scheduled to open to the public in July 2007) is located on the Mount Evans Scenic and Historic Byway, the highest paved automobile road in North America. Tens of thousands of people visit Mount Evans annually during the short (less than four months) season that the road is open. The project was a joint effort by the District and the Denver Botanic Gardens (whose docents provide guided tours on the trails leading from the log building).
Situated near timberline in the northernmost large stand of bristlecone pines in the Rockies, the abundance and diversity of subalpine and alpine plant species around the building site led to its designation as a Research Natural Area.

The central theme is botanical, but the interpretive focus includes both flora and fauna with an emphasis on the manner in which they adapt to the harsh, high-altitude environment.
EDA Products and Services
• conceptual and structural exhibit   design
• interactive design and engineering
• graphic design and production
• diorama design and production
• turnkey fabrication and installation
• exterior signs routed onto   sandstone blocks 		Project Highlights
• 17-foot high bristlecone pine (more than 1,000 years   old) as the centerpiece of the exhibit space
• dioramas constructed inside plexiglass tubes to show soil   profiles, plant roots and the lives of underground   animals
• interactive, three-sided “roller-prisms” that engage   visitors in a matching game
• flip-books with detailed botanical illustrations
Visitors can touch the tree and use a magnifier to examine a cross-section of one of its branches (its trunk was largely hollow, having rotted out during the years it stood dead). Moving it, without the use of motor vehicles or machines, was a major challenge in terms of logistics, ethical considerations and getting past the regulatory hurdles.
 The decision to move it was not reached without plenty of controversy and soul-searching. Some of the project team felt that it sent the wrong message (that removing objects from a wilderness area was OK) to visitors. The argument was ultimately swayed by the fact that having the tree inside allowed physically-challenged visitors who would not otherwise have the chance to see, touch and smell a bristlecone up-close would have that opportunity.