The fourteener is located in the Mount Evans Wilderness of Pike National Forest, 9.4 miles (15.1 km) south by east (bearing 171°) of the Town of Georgetown in Clear Creek County.

[1][2][3][4] It was named in honor of Albert Bierstadt, an American landscape painter who made the first recorded summit of the mountain in 1863.

Mount Bierstadt is one of the most popular mountains to climb in Colorado due to its proximity to Denver and non-technical reputation.

The trail descends slightly into the fairly level marshlands surrounding Scott Gomer Creek before reaching Bierstadt's western slopes.

That painting shows either Mount Spalding or Mount Blue Sky (it is ambiguous) from the Chicago Lakes, 3 miles (4.8 km) north-northwest, but Bierstadt and his guide William Byers climbed onward to the summit of either Blue Sky or Spalding (the account is ambiguous).