Crested Butte

September 19, 2020 · by Dano · in Colorado

Always a nice trip to Crested Butte from our home in Fairplay. Just 2.5 hours away, and through some pretty nice Rocky Mountain scenery, this small town of ~1,500 people always has something going on. But, as with any trip in Colorado during our second season, Colorado only has two seasons, winter and road construction, we encountered our first delay which was not noted on the CDOT Road Conditions status. Chip sealing seems to be a favorite pastime for CDOT. You never can tell when or where they’ll be but rest assured, if you do any traveling in Colorado, you’ll find them.

Enjoying Colorado’s “road construction” season

OK, so now the trip is closer to 3 hours, but still, not a bad drive. Unique to Crested Butte, among other things, is their love of chrome art pieces. As you enter the town, there is a large chrome dragon being fought by a chrome knight. Pretty nice artwork, but it doesn’t stop there. There are chrome benches, chrome birds, and chrome sculptures scattered throughout the town. All of this unique artwork was created by local artist Sean Guerrero using recycled chrome parts from old cars, trucks, and airplanes. His work can be seen across the country but especially in Crested Butte, one of his favorite hometowns.

We’re heading for Elk avenue and the historic center of Crested Butte. This street is lined with buildings from the late 1800’s and has some real character, not to mention one of our favorite pizza parlors is there and we’re getting a little hungry. Most of these buildings have had varied lives since 1880, when the town was incorporated. Like the liquor store that was also once a doctor’s office and then became a mortuary before returning back to a liquor store. Or the Wooden Nickel saloon that was known for its owner shooting his revolver into a tree stump late at night to keep nearby residents awake. If the people were awake, he could keep serving drinks, or so the story goes.

The Wooden Nickle Saloon

Elk Street

Time for our short lunch break at Brick Oven pizzeria. Great pizza, nice ambiance and plenty of outdoor seating where we can do a little people watching while having lunch.

Supreme pizza, traditional crust. Yummy!

After finishing off our ‘supreme’ pizza, need to do a little walking around town and see what’s going on today. Didn’t take long before Collette noticed that several stores had a form of ‘natural’ sculpture on their storefronts. Twigs, branches, leaves, some odd pieces of metal and plastic tied into very rough shapes of people or fairy goblins. No idea what they could mean but had to check it out.

So, once we got home, I researched these odd stick people and found that they are part of the annual “Vinotok” event. This year’s theme is, “Stoking the Fire Both Inside & Out” and is suppose to depict gratitude, balance & reciprocity; and brandishing & beckoning. OK, well, I’m still a little lost in this one but here are a few pics of the sculptures so you can decide for yourself the unspoken meaning.

Probably our best thing to do in Crested Butte is explore the mountains. We don’t do a lot of hiking but there are tons of places to drive to and see some beautiful scenery that you’ll find nowhere else.

This trip we took a different road from other visits and ended up in the small, ghost town of Gothic. Like most of Colorado’s ghost towns, Gothic was a mining town. Mines of silver and coal sprung up like wildflowers in the late 1800’s bringing with it merchandise and supply stores, grocery stores, even a post office to support the 1,000+ residents. And like most Colorado ghost towns, the mining went bust, the people moved out and the town was abandoned.

Not until 1928 was there a breath of life breathed back into Gothic when Dr. John Johnson purchased the entire town and established the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Today the laboratory is still in operation with about 160 professors, scientists, and students living in the remains of what was the original town. Although this is a ‘biological’ lab, it isn’t one studying viruses or disease. Here they study climate change, ecology and that ever important subject, marmots. Yep, one of the specialties here is the study of marmots. Now you know.

The old general merchandise store?

Remains of the town

Time to head home. Easy to see why some people call this home, at least during the summer. Winters here are brutal with the average low around -4⁰ F, but the summers are pleasant. Keep that in mind if you decide to move here.