When you’re in Crested Butte the only time is mountain time. Life slows down and moves at the pace you set for your day. Even a “busy” coffee shop crammed full of people seemed more relaxed. Yes, we were on vacation, but the pristine mountain town hold a special power as well. I vaguely recall seeing some marketing materials declaring Crested Butte to be Colorado’s last great mountain town. There are a lot of great mountain towns in Colorado to me, so I disagree. However, Crested Butte’s isolation and uniqueness are undeniable, but that is far too dramatic of a statement to me.
We went to Crested Butte in early December planning to go snowshoeing, snowmobiling, and maybe XC skiing. The only problem was that there wasn’t any snow this year! Also, many of the surrounding roads (like Kebler Pass) were already closed for the season which limited our hiking options slightly. Regardless, our long weekend in Crested Butte was amazing and a lot of fun! I had never been to Crested Butte before, but I know I will be back now! We only ate at a fraction of the restaurants in town and only went on a few hikes around town. There is great beauty right in town and in every direction. Crested Butte was tremendous!
I’m going to make a separate post about our hikes, but here are some of my favorite pictures from around town:
Camp 4 Coffee is quite possibly the most adorable coffee shop I’ve seen. We stayed at a VROB about a block away, which was awesome. The whole town is within walking distance of course. We were very glad that we decided to stay in town instead of up by the resort though; especially since we were there so early in the season. Also, First Ascent Roasters on the other end of town is great as well! Coffee game is strong in Crested Butte.The side of the Camp 4 Coffee buildingCamp 4 Coffee GreeterSoup! We first saw the soup sign down the alley, which gave us a good laugh. Izzy’s has awesome breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and soup! (Well, we didn’t try the soup actually).Elk Ave (aka Main Street)Eldo Brew Pub and the Post Office. Eldo’s beer was pretty disappointing, but we ended up at the Eldo for Drag Queen Bingo night, so we still got our money’s worth. On a side note, we were relatively unimpressed with the beer in Crested Butte. We tried a few beers from Irwin Brewing Company at the Public House on Elk Ave, which serves their full beer line. The beers were ok, but nothing particularly interesting.Mount Crested Butte (12,162′)Surf’s Up!The Company Store building is home to Secret Stash Pizza, which we really enjoyed. Great bar and delicious pizza. Brick Oven Pizzeria in town is supposed to be good also, but we didn’t have time for that.Montanya is a white rum distillery in town. The atmosphere inside was great and fun. Although, after a day of hiking and being a little dehydrated; we, probably didn’t enjoy it quite as much as usual. The food here was pretty good also.Looking up at Crested Butte Resort…yep, they still needed some snow in early December!Gothic Mountain (12,631′) is another very prominent mountain just outside of town. We saw a lot of Gothic Mountain as we hiked up the road to the ghost town of Gothic on our first day in town. Then we tried to climb Gothic the next day, which ended up in an ill-fated rock scramble. I’ll make a few separate posts with great pictures from those days shortly.
A gentler Colorado horse than the one by the airport.Goodnight Crested Butte! See you next time!
