Gothic Ghost Town

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.

Looking back at Crested Butte Ski Area
Gothic Mountain (12,631′)
Avery Peak (12,653′)…the red face is supposed to be a great rock climbing spot
Very little snow to speak of
Where’s the snow?
Gothic Mountain on the way up the road…a little chilly in the shade, but a truly beautiful day.
We finally found a little bit of snow…sort of.
Photo op.
Town Hall
Gothic Mountain dominates the sky!
Gothic Town
Gothic Town

View from lunch!
Back at Crested Butte
Gothic Mountain from our hike to Judd Falls
Judd Falls was frozen over and this pictures doesn’t show it too well, but it was beautiful. The highlight of this little jaunt was still the views of Gothic Mountain though.
More views of Gothic Mountain
More views of Gothic Mountain
More views of Gothic Mountain
Crested Butte
Snack at Town Hall…most of the buildings in the background are part of the lab.

One thought on “Gothic Ghost Town”

  1. Great photos and neat area. The lab does great work on climate change, plants, insects and many areas.

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