Gothic is all old ghost town just 4 or 5 miles outside of Crested Butte, Colorado. The town was a silver mining community in the late 19th century before fading away. Once the silver deposits were tapped out, the town was abandoned aside from one man, Garland Judd. The town is now home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, which runs summer programs for students. While the town itself is fun, it is the area is undeniably in the shadow of mighty Gothic Mountain as well.

In the summertime, you can drive right through the town on Co Rd 317 on the way up to Schofield Pass. In the wintertime, the road is closed right outside of town, which adds to the appeal to the ghost town. The approach on the road was beautiful and added to the intrigue of Gothic, rather than simply driving there. Our plan for the day was to snowshoe up the road to Gothic, but there was hardly any snow during our early December visit. We had already cancelled our snowmobiling adventure due to lack of snow, so we were a little bit bummed.

However, our disappointed soon disappeared entirely as well march up the road.