Crested Butte Vacation Travel Blog

Wow, what a ride. Long known as one of Crested Butte’s best rides, this trail has it all. Three challenging heart pumping hill climbs offering great views and scenic peaks. And three spectacular downhills that will leave you with a grin plastered to your face. The first two are sweeping and fast with few technical sections. The last one down Deadman’s is famous for its 32 switchbacks. Roughly 3,400 feet of elevation gain over 20 miles, this trail takes 3 to 5 hours and is rated an “expert” trail.

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This trail has long been known as a Crested Butte classic. The crazy thing is how few people are on it, which tends to leave it wide open for almost private use most days. The trail is 10.5 miles long and offers a lung challenging 2,000 ft climb. The first 5.5 miles of the climb is on a double track which is followed by a final mile of single track offer you spectacular views of the West Brush Creek Valley where few people wonder. After all that climbing you are rewarded with unique views of Star Peak, Pearl Mountain, and the east face of Mount Crested Butte. The 4 mile downhill is split between fast and rocky, and just fast. Hit it just right and you will find yourself surrounded by some of the best flowers Crested Butte has to offer!

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The north end of Gothic Road offers some incredible trails for hiking and mountain biking. One often overlooked trail is Rustlers Gulch. This trail is open to hikers only and offers an incredibly peaceful valley to explore. There are creeks along the way, some old mining ruins and even a small waterfall. During the middle of the summer there are tons of wildflowers and in late summer it offers some incredible views.

Towards the middle of Kebler Pass is Horse Ranch Park. From here you have a choice of several hiking trails, one of which is Dark Canyon. This trail can be used in conjunction with part of the Dyke Trail to create a great 6 mile hike through the Aspen offering beaver ponds and great views of the valley

Blue Lake is a challenging, yet rewarding, destination for a day hike. Found 7 miles at the top of the Oh-Be-Joyful Trail, this trail offers views of waterfalls, beaver damns, and incredible valley, flowers, abandoned mines, wonderful views and an incredible lake. This trail can also be riding by horseback.

The Dyke Trail is a wonderful Mountain Biking trail all summer, but truly becomes spectacular in the fall during all the colors. This trail is found a few miles from town on Kebler Road. This 14 mile loop offers some great downhills and one challenging, yet rewarding, climb.

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Lost Lakes Trail is one of Crested Butte’s greatest Fall treasures. This 3.2 mile hiking loop offers three great overlooks, three lakes and one waterfall. After a very scenic 15 mile drive on Kebler Road (Famous for all its Aspen trees) you take a left on a dirt road heading up to an old mining camp for access to this trail. This shot was taken along the trail looking north.

The Oh-Be-Joyful Trail is probably the best hike for viewing waterfalls in the area. This creek is a sought after run for kayakers from around the world. Fall after fall is easily viewable from a foot trail that runs right next to the falls all the way up the creek. Once you reach the top of the falls you join up with the Wilderness trail going all the way up to Blue Lake (7 miles up) or Democrat Basin (6 miles). You don’t have to make the whole hike to enjoy the wildflowers, beaver damns and the open Oh-Be-Joyful Valley. Restricted to only hikers and horseback riders this can be a very relaxing hike. This trail head is found a few miles outside of town on Slate River Road.

The Caves Hike is a great day excursion especially for a picnic or a sunset hike. Drive out Cement Creek Road in Crested Butte South about 3 miles to the trail head (first parking area). The trail then winds two miles uphill to the top. Near the top the trail splits. The left goes around up to the top. The right goes up a climb through the caves. The top offers a wonderful view to the west (one of the few places to see a good sunset in the area). Make sure to hike down before it starts getting too dark.

After a very dry two weeks most our hiking and biking trails are open. Trails above 10,000 feet are still wet and have a bit of snow cover but for the most part we have a great number of trails open for this time of year. We even have a new mountain bike trail that has expanded our Lower Loop Trail system thanks to 150+ volunteers and the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association of which we are proud sponsors. These photos where taken while out hiking and biking over the last couple days.

Crested Butte is known for its diverse geology and great hiking. One thing that can be enjoyed is combining the two on a Crystal Hunting Hike. Locals know all the good spots and we are more than happy to share that knowledge with you. Today I was only out for an hour or so and this was my booty.

Crested Butte is surrounded by almost two million acres of pristine wilderness in southwest Colorado. There are wonderful trails to take that allow you to explore so many areas. However, you are also able to strike out on your own to discover areas in which there are no trails. With some good map skills and/or a GPS one can just pick an area on a map and go. This is what I was doing the day I headed up into Virginia Basin on Mount Avery north of Crested Butte. The hike rewarded me with a discovery of an old abandoned mine and great views of Gothic Mountain.

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The West Maroon is a wonderful trail to visit all summer, but it is best at its wildflower peak which is normally late July. Flowers are blooming up there for quite awhile, but at its peak they are waist high and offer a variety of colors. The trailhead is up past Schofield Pass and is best accessed by a SUV. It is 4 miles up to the West Maroon Pass and roughly 2000 feet elevation gain. This side of the pass offers a great variety of flowers and views. If you were to continue over this pass, you could hike through the evergreen forest into Aspen.

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The Carbon Trail is a neat trail I only discovered this year. It is part way down Ohio Creek Pass, scenic route to Gunnison. This trail can be used to connect up to Green Lake and back into town if one so desired. However, I recommend it for a short hike to see a bit of local history. In the Great Race for the first Transcontinental Railroad this was the team that lost. The South Park Line ends here just southwest of Crested Butte. The sign early on the trail describes the whole event and what happened. The picture in the top right shows a dry stack bridge of rocks that was constructed, but never finished. It is amazing how well this bridge, referred to as the "Great Wall" by locals, has survived with out falling for well over 100 years.

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Crested Butte's 401 Trail is a great ride. It can be ridden several different ways, but I suggest two of them. The first way is to drive up past the old mining town site of Gothic and park at the Judd Falls parking area. From here you can ride up the dirt road to Schofield Pass and jump on the 401 trail to the right. After a challenging 1000 foot elevation gain in 1.5 miles you reach the top. Following the trails signs you will complete this 13.7 mile loop returning to your car. Total elevation gain is around 2,750 feet. The second option is to continue driving up past the Judd Falls trailhead until you reach the Rustler's Gulch trailhead. By parking here to start your loop, your ride is cut down to 8.5 miles and only a 1,650 feet elevation change. This way also cuts out the second climb towards the end of the full 401 Loop. On this particular day I had gone out to ride at 6:30pm doing the shorter loop to enjoy the last hours of sunlight before dark.

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This driving loop gets you up into the mountains offering spectacular views. This is my favorite driving loop in the area during the mid summer. Most SUVs can do this loop as long as there is no snow and you are comfortable driving along steep drops. I have been doing this loop over the years in my Subaru Outback, but cannot recommend it to fellow owners being that I scrape my front and back end through several sections of the road. That being said, the trip starts in town and heads up Gothic Road past the ski resort where the road turns to dirt. As you continue up the road you will pass the old mining town site of Gothic, several trailheads and even a beautiful lake called Emerald because of the color it receives from the snow melt. Once you reach the pass on Gothic (known as Schofield Pass) you will take a left to head into Paradise Divide. At Paradise Divide you will have great views of several surrounding mountains, including Purple Mountain in which this Crested Butte Bed and Breakfast was named after. You then can continue on heading back by taking the only road off to your left. This road winds down along a steep drop off that can bother some folks. Once you have passed this section in the road you have a choice of taking your first left and coming back Washington Gulch Rd. (my favorite way because of the views) or continuing down in which you will drive down a series of switchbacks until you get to Slate River Rd. Either way will lead you back to Gothic Road which, with a right hand turn, will bring you back to town. On this day I happened to see a deer which you can see in the bottom left-hand picture. If you do not feel like driving this I am happy to help you set up a 4x4 guided trip. Some guests who like to mountain bike on dirt roads also enjoy this loop for a ride.

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Lake Irwin is a great little getaway for a picnic by a lake. The trip requires no hiking, just a 9 mile drive from the Bed and Breakfast. You simple head out of town on Kebler Rd until you come to the right hand turn off for Lake Irwin. From the turn off it is only 2.5 miles further until you drive up to the lake itself. Lake Irwin is a great place to take a picnic (may I suggest take out food from Why Cook...) and a great place to fish along its shores.

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Copley Lake is a wonderful hiking trail up the backside of Mount Emmons right outside of town. The trail head is about 5 miles from the bed and breakfast up Kebler Rd. At the small pull off parking area, the trail heads up the left side of the creek climbing around 1,100 feet in elevation up to Copley Lake. Copley Lake offers an incredible meadow of Elephant's Head wildflowers with view of the distant mountains of the Ruby Range. The hike is about 4.5 miles round trip.

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The Brush Creek Trail is probably one of the best bets for early season wildflower viewing. It is an easy hike (once a farm road) that leads hikes out along the east side of Mount Crested Butte for about two miles. As you can see from the above picture, there are an abundance of flowers and great views of the Brush Creek Valley. Cattle grazing fly fishermen fishing and views of the pyramid like mountain, Teocalli, are just a few of the sights you will have along this very easy hike. No matter what your hiking abilities, this hike is worth doing just for the early season flower display.

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Well sometimes this is the Wild West out here in Crested Butte. Because of some current land disputes Strand Hill Trail has had to be re-routed. The new entrance to the Trail is by taking the Canal Trail which is a half mile further up Brush Creek Road than the old entrance. You then jump on Strand Hill Bonus Trail to make your way up to the road that leads you to the top of the famous Strand Hill downhill. The trail off of Brush Creek is now a 7.5 mile adventure. I went out to ride this "new" trail the other day for the first time and I am now starting to wonder why I have not been riding it this way from the start. It was great! The climb is now .8 miles longer and on single track instead of jeep road. The extra length in the climb also means that it is not as steep. And on top of it all, it is looking like the Brush Creek area will be hitting its wildflower peak around the first of July this year.

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This was a wonderful ride! The Doctor's Park is best accessed by Taylor River Road. This trail offers a long 8 mile uphill hike or can be used as a 20 Mountain Bike loop with 12 miles of climbing 2,750 feet and an incredible 8 mile downhill. To do the loop you first start out riding up Spring Creek Road and continue this gradual climb even after it has become a dirt road. This road winds its way up Spring Creek offering great scenery and some great fishing holes for you fly fishermen out there. There is then an almost knee deep river crossing (this crossing becomes shallow later in the season) before a more challenging jeep road climb. At the top with climb mellows out as you make your way through the thick pine forest. Then you come to the single track downhill... This rollercoaster of a ride offers both smooth banking high speed sections and technical rocky sections. Because of this, I see this as an intermediate to expert trail. The trail ends with a sandy technical switchback decent back to Taylor River Road. By the end of this ride my legs were worn out from climbing, my forearms were worked from holding on to the brakes during the decent and my cheeks were sore from the permanent smile that had affixed itself to my face as I enjoyed this incredible downhill thrill ride.

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Only having a little bit of time and wanting to get outside for a few, I headed up to the Judd Falls Trail just north of the Town site of Gothic today. Gothic is an old mining town that is now used as a botanical research center to study the incredible diversity of wildflowers found around Crested Butte. The trail itself is a 2 to 3 mile round trip adventure that offers some great views and an enjoyable waterfall. You can extend the length of this hike by following the creek further up above the waterfall. On this particular day we were able to come across two groups of deer grazing on the hillsides.

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This trail works great for both hiking and mountain biking. Snodgrass Trail can be made into a 13 mile loop for mountain bikers coming from town or a short out and back trip for day hikers who drive up to the trail head. It is a bit of a climb, but your hard work has its rewards. As this trail winds its way around the mountain you will find it offers an incredible perspective of Mount Crested Butte. In this Photo you can see the slopes of Mount Crested Butte as the snows have almost completely melted away. Along this trail you can also find a wide variety of wildflowers growing.

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On this particular day I created a 21 mile loop by adding on the Whetstone Vista Trail and Strand Hill to the Upper Loop before heading back to town. This photo was taken at the beginning of the Strand Hill climb out Brush Creek. It is roughly a 2.25 mile climb up before you get to one of my favorite downhill rides in the early season. Brush Creek is a great area for hiking and biking. It offers a variety of trails and access to some incredible wilderness. I spend a good amount of time not only biking around here, but doing incredibly scenic hikes to Twin Lake and climbing the peak of Teocalli.

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The Upper Loop Trail starts at the end of my street, wonders up the Recreation Trail to Mount Crested Butte then offers a variety of options as you head back down to town on single track. Because of all the options it offers this trail is great for the immediate mountain biker and the more experienced.

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Wow, what a start to a wonderful summer in Crested Butte, Colorado. The snows are melting, the aspen are sprouting new leaves and the flowers are starting to bloom. I have been getting out to play on the trails and wanted a chance to share some of my pictures with you. This picture was taken along the Lower Loop Trail right outside of town. The Lower Loop is a great trail to get those legs going again whether you are mountain biking, hiking or jogging. The thing I love about this trail is that there is not a lot of elevation gain so one can enjoy this trail without too much effort as it wonders along the Slate River. If you go far enough on this trail you will get to the Oh Be Joyful Falls. This time of year kayakers are traveling from all over to paddle these waters. I myself find this a little crazy since the river is a series of continuous falls and hazards, but I love to watch these brave souls demonstrate their talents.

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