Crystal Mill &Ghost Town

Crystal Mill, Crystal, CO

Tuesday, August 7 -Crystal, CO - 6 Miles Today, 12,484.2 For the Trip

The 6 miles for today was my drive from the campground to Dick & Anne's & back. We actually did far more that that in his 4 Runner.

I was up early today - I actually set the alarm for 6:00AM, although as usual, I woke up about 15 minutes before it went off. The plan for the day is to drive to Crystal, CO to see the old air compressor building & the town, which, while officially a ghost town, is full of people. Because Crystal is 6 miles from the town of Marble on a 4 wheel drive road we took Dick & Anne's 4 Runner rather than my RAV4. I know the RAV4 is called a 4 wheel drive vehicle, but it is really only designed for good quality roads. It has no low range, no skid plates protecting important parts, and not any where near enough ground clearance. If you are tempted to try the road in a "citified" 4 wheel drive vehicle, don't! Lots of large rocks to climb over, loose gravel & rocks, long drops off the edge of the road (there is a photo of a truck that went over). In short, you don't need a super modified 4 wheeler to do the drive, but you do need a real 4 wheel drive vehicle & an experienced driver. We had both & it was a great trip.

We took US 24 north out of Leadville, got on I 70 & got off at Glenwood Springs, headed south on CO 82 & CO 133, then took FR 314 to Marble where we followed the 4 wheel drive trail to Crystal & the Mill. We made a short stop to see some coke ovens in the town of Redstone along CO 82. I have photos of the restored ovens as well as some in the original condition. After that it was on to Marble. Marble produced some of the highest quality marble ever mined. It has been used for many statues, the Washington Monument & the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. While the quarry closed for awhile, it has reopened and is still producing high quality marble. Another interesting point - the Crystal River runs along side the road & every once in a while you can see what looks like a truck load that fell in.

After a butt busting 6 mile drive from Beaver Lake at the edge of Marble, you first reach the "Mill". While often called a mill, it was actually designed to produce compressed air used for drilling a local tunnel. While not the best time of day for photos (late afternoon would be better for lighting the face of the building) I took some photos, then we made the short drive to the town of Crystal. While at times it had hundreds of residents, it currently consists of about 10 buildings, all of which are summer homes. I bought a book on the history of the town & mill from the author's sister who spends the summer in one of the buildings.

After eating lunch in Crystal (we brought our own; although there is a small store there, it was closed) we headed back to Leadville. We stopped to photograph a small waterfall that probably looks better with spring runoff, and took CO 82 through Aspen & Independence Pass to get back to Leadville.

Photographs of all are at today's LakeshoreImages page.


Dinner was a partially frozen Salad - I defrosted the refrigerator and it works really well! Of course part of that is because it went down to 42°F last night.

Until Tomorrow!