Crested Butte
A Coal Mining Town Of The 1880s At 8,909 Feet, Its Centre A National Historic District Of Painted Wooden Fronts. Designated The Wildflower Capital Of Colorado By The State Legislature, And Home Of The Mountain Bike Hall Of Fame. · Crested Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte is a coal town that the coal left and the wildflowers saved. It sits at 8,909 feet at the end of a valley with no road over the top in winter, which is why the 1880s townsite survived more or less intact - a National Historic District of painted wooden fronts along Elk Avenue, still a town rather than a shopping street. The Colorado legislature named it the Wildflower Capital of Colorado, and in July the meadows around it genuinely justify that: lupine, mule's ears and columbine to the horizon, with a festival built around them. It also claims the birth of mountain biking - in 1976 a group of locals rode klunkers over Pearl Pass to Aspen, and the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is in town. The ski mountain three miles up the road holds some of the most serious inbounds terrain in North America, while the town three miles below it still has a hardware store on the main street and about fifteen hundred residents.
Elk Avenue, Crested Butte, Colorado, 81224, United States
A year-round town of about 1,500 people. The ski area runs roughly late November to early April and the summer season runs June to September, with genuine off-seasons in May and late October-November when many restaurants close for several weeks. KEBLER PASS AND COTTONWOOD PASS ARE SUMMER-ONLY dirt and gravel routes; the only year-round road in is from Gunnison. The Wildflower Festival runs in July and fills the town's beds months in advance.