Colorado Ghost Towns in June

I'm putting together a trip in June to shoot a few old mining towns and hopefully get some landscape and water shots in the bargain.

I'll be roughly starting in the Cripple Creek / Victor area taking the High Park Road toward the Arkansas river and on to Salida. Then up to the old mining town of St. Elmo.

After that, over to South Park City for the town and museum.
Does anyone have recent experience at South Park City? Are there tripod or photo restrictions? I'll be using a large format camera primarily -- some places have issues with the use of this kind of equipment.

Once I leave there, I thought about taking 285 to Grant and traversing Guanella Pass road to Georgetown.

As time permits, I hope to either catch Clear Creek canon into Golden or follow a mountain trek northward to Estes Park.

The whole trip is about 330 miles. I don't think I'll have time to hit everything along the way. So I'm going to try to budget for the best potential opportunities and be extremely flexible with the itinerary. I know that afternoon clouds build often in June so I'm going to attempt to get the landscapes early in the day.

It's been well over 15 years since I've been in that part of the country and I was wondering if anyone has recent experience and possibly some suggestions.

Regards,
Bill Riley

Check with Steve Simmons. There will be a View Camera workshop there just before Foto3 starts.

roteague said:

Check with Steve Simmons. There will be a View Camera workshop there just before Foto3 starts.

Click to expand...

Thanks for picking up on that Robert. Actually, I'm planning on attending the workshop and taking the "long way" up to Fort Collins.

Bill Riley

Photographica said:

I'm putting together a trip in June to shoot a few old mining towns and hopefully get some landscape and water shots in the bargain.

I'll be roughly starting in the Cripple Creek / Victor area taking the High Park Road toward the Arkansas river and on to Salida. Then up to the old mining town of St. Elmo.

It's been well over 15 years since I've been in that part of the country and I was wondering if anyone has recent experience and possibly some suggestions.

Regards,
Bill Riley

Click to expand...

Bill,

Don't stop at St. Elmo, keep going on 267 up and over Tincup Pass to Tincup. IMO, the light and scenery is better on the western slope.

Not been there in 15 years? Warning, it ain't what it used to be.

Terry

Photographica said:

I'm putting together a trip in June to shoot a few old mining towns and hopefully get some landscape and water shots in the bargain.

I'll be roughly starting in the Cripple Creek / Victor area taking the High Park Road toward the Arkansas river and on to Salida. Then up to the old mining town of St. Elmo.

After that, over to South Park City for the town and museum.
Does anyone have recent experience at South Park City? Are there tripod or photo restrictions? I'll be using a large format camera primarily -- some places have issues with the use of this kind of equipment.

Once I leave there, I thought about taking 285 to Grant and traversing Guanella Pass road to Georgetown.

As time permits, I hope to either catch Clear Creek canon into Golden or follow a mountain trek northward to Estes Park.

The whole trip is about 330 miles. I don't think I'll have time to hit everything along the way. So I'm going to try to budget for the best potential opportunities and be extremely flexible with the itinerary. I know that afternoon clouds build often in June so I'm going to attempt to get the landscapes early in the day.

It's been well over 15 years since I've been in that part of the country and I was wondering if anyone has recent experience and possibly some suggestions.

Regards,
Bill Riley

Click to expand...

What vehicle are you driving? A high-clearance 4WD, I presume? Tincup Pass will require that, but in June it probably won't be open yet anyway, unless snowpack is less than normal and spring warmer than normal.

If it's been 15 years, you'll be amazed at the number of ATVs buzzing about these days.

Starting at the begining, if you can start from Colorado Springs you can take a former RR grade into Victor. Family car could do it, in the dry. Very scenic.

Victor retains a nice rough-hewn feel (last there in 2005, on a dual-purpose BMW motorcycle), while Cripple Creek is pretty much full of casinos.

Fewer and fewer original buildings exist in St. Elmo, and more and more new ones are coming along.

Clear Creek, and Central City... Central City is also pretty much filled with casinos, much of it new construction.

If you are driving a 4WD, and you are comfy on shelf roads, a couple suggestions I'd make are below. Google on them to check them out, there's tons of info on the Net.

Alpine Tunnel, off of Cumberland Pass
Crystal, south of Carbondale, site of the famous mill that everybody shoots...
Marble, site of the marble quarries, which are currently in operation.

I've been to Colorado to Jeep, motorcycle, visit ghost towns, camp, and kayak the whitewater there - about a dozen 2-week trips over the past 20 years. Was there in 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2007. If you want to discuss it more, I'd be willing to share my phone number with you. PM me if interested, I'm in Ohio.

Oh!!!! A book I can reccomend on the subject: Colorado Passbook. Book of offroad mountain passes, some 4WD, many not. Book gives history, would be a good set of clues for photos, and tells the difficulty of each road. In my experience, it's been *very* accurate.

Thanks for the tips on Tincup Terry and Doug. I'm getting a rental so unless there is something compelling enough to justify the extra cost, I will probably just get a passenger car.

I hadn't though about the the proliferation of ATVs over the last 15 or so years. I'll bet the mountains are a bit more crowded. I used to travel the forgotten trails with my 4x4 pickup and 500cc trail bike in the 80's. Once in a while we'd cross paths with a willy jeep but not much else.

The last time I traveled the old narrow gauge RR bed back-route out of Victor (Phantom Canyon I believe) my wife and I were driving an MG midget. Simple enough drive but I don't recall anything spectacular between Victor and Canyon City -- that is other than the horse trailer we followed for a short while at the bottom of the canyon. By the way, when we learned that it is not a good idea to follow a horse trailer in a convertible... with the top down.

DougGrosjean said:

Alpine Tunnel, off of Cumberland Pass
Crystal, south of Carbondale, site of the famous mill that everybody shoots...
Marble, site of the marble quarries, which are currently in operation.

Click to expand...

Like you said Doug, Cumberland may be a little early to pass the first week of June.

I'd love to get my own picture of the mill in Crystal... someday. I've seen some really good images of it.

Have you ever been to South Park city? Is it worth a visit?

Bill Riley

Photographica said:

Like you said Doug, Cumberland may be a little early to pass the first week of June.

I'd love to get my own picture of the mill in Crystal... someday. I've seen some really good images of it.

Have you ever been to South Park city? Is it worth a visit?

Bill Riley

Click to expand...

I grew up in Colorado Springs, but haven't been there in more than 15 years. The conference will be my first trip back to Colorado in years. But, I probably won't spend much time before or after the conference. I think I'll do a week or 10 day trip to Sydney, to photograph the Blue Mountains and perhaps the Hunter Valley before then.

South Park City is a tourist attraction that in my mind is worth seeing. They scrounged a bunch of old buildings from the area and rebuilt them to create a museum town. There are also a display of RR cars and railroadiana based on The DSP&P railroad. The road to St. Elmo is ok for regular vehicles but if you want to go out of ST. Elmo to Tin Cup 4 wh drive is necessary. Also in early June snow most like will be a problem.
Snow could be a problem on Cumberland Pass but the highway is always open to Pitkin. Might also be a bit early to make the trip to the Alpine Tunnel. It is amazing the amount of work that Ray Rossman and his volunteers have put into the actual tunnel area. They have pretty much rebuilt the telegraph office installed
new telegraph poles and laid 40 pound rail directly in front of the building. The rail runs upgrade to a working Harp Switch and a bit beyond. The folks in Pitkin can tell the snow condition on both the tunnel and Cumberland pass. If Cumberland Pass is open you can drive directly to Tin Cup on a very good dirt road.
The turn off to Alpine Tunnel is at the former location of the town Quartz, it is just a few miles out of Pitkin
and the only major right turn in the road, a large curving fill has been built where the original had washed away
years ago.

Following the road that goes to and passes by St. Elmo, you are on the railroad grade of the DSP&P on its way to Hancock. It is very rough but includes the mining complex at Romley and one of the last truss bridges still standing in the U.S. Hancock has very little left building wise, but is still very scenic. The rail grade swings to right and travels on to the Alpine Tunnel. We are not allowed to use wheeled vehicles much past that point. In late August the USFS at times allow 4 wh. drive vehicles and ATV's to go over Williams pass. It is rough! The Williams Pass road (Once the Alpine And South Park Stage Line) crosses the Pass and meanders down through
mountain mahogany and boggy conditions. It meets and crosses the Alpine Tunnel rail road grade just a few hundred yards above the the Palisades. The Palisades is a wall of hand cut and assembled stone built up from the valley below to form a shelf for the rail grade to be built on. It is a sight to see!. From this point you can turn right on the grade for perhaps a mile or two to the Alpine Tunnel. Turning left will take you accross the Palasades. Just before you actually drive out on the Palasades is a large split rock, behind it slightly on top you will find the tripod holes left by William H. Jackson, LC McClure and of course my own. The view is of the Brittle Silver Basin and the great rock wall, below about 700 feet you can see the rr grade heading up ward past the remains of the water tank and tiny town of Woodstock. The whole town was hit by a snow slide in March of 1884 many did not survive. The Alpine and South Park Stage road crossed the grade and went down toward Woodstock where it again crossed the grade and dropped into the Middle Quartz Creek valley. This is no longer passable for wheeled vehicles. Leaving Woodstock going down grade you will soon see the remains of the new water tank that was built in1885 to replace the one crushed in the woodstock slide. Follow the grade back down to the big curving fill I mentioned earlier and you will soon be back in Pitkin.

Going South out of Salida you will be on Poncha Pass where the road heads toards the San Louis Valley.
shortly you find a sign saying Mears Junction turning right will take you up over very scenic Marshall Pass.
Marshall is another abandoned railroad grade that traveled from Salida to Gunnison and Crested Butte. The road joins the main highway at Sargents. The water tank is still standing, in poor state of repair,
but it demands to be photographed. back on the main highway you can go right over Monarch Pass and back to Salida or go west into Gunnison. Many photo opps in the Gunnison area, Ohio creek, Crested Butte Etc.

Enough rambling for now.

Charlie.................................

Photographica said:

Thanks for the tips on Tincup Terry and Doug. ..... The last time I traveled the old narrow gauge RR bed back-route out of Victor (Phantom Canyon I believe) my wife and I were driving an MG midget. Simple enough drive but I don't recall anything spectacular between Victor and Canyon City -- that is other than the horse trailer we followed for a short while at the bottom of the canyon. By the way, when we learned that it is not a good idea to follow a horse trailer in a convertible... with the top down.

Click to expand...

Phantom Canyon is one old RR grade, but there's another that travels from CO Springs to Victor. Out of CS, it's called Goldcamp Road. Kinda hard to find, but it's near the Broadmoor. Once on it, it has nice views of CS in a couple spots, then passes through rolling foothills, green ranch country, through some narrow RR cuts, at least one tunnel. Easy drive, pleasant, scenic, but hard to find the start of it in CS.

The Shelf Road, which also runs Victor-Canon City, also isn't bad if dry. More scenic at the southern end.

I've done Alpine Tunnel in a 10 y/o Toyota Corolla with a zillion miles on it, but with extreme care - and even then I scraped lightly a couple times. Some years could be much worse.

Cumberland Pass, if open, should be easy in a regular car. It's smooth for a dirt road, not steep. I've done it twice, once in the Corolla and once on the BMW GS. It's spooky when wet, kinda slimy. Not enough to get stuck anywhere, but enough to make you nervous.

Cottonwood Pass is also easy, and do-able in a regular car.

Tincup CO has a neat cemetery, but you'll have to get to it on foot or 4WD or horse. It's on the Cumberland Pass road into town, or rather, just maybe a tenth of a mile off that road.

I've not been to South Park, so I have no knowledge there.

But one more that would be easy to get to: Independence, just over Independence Pass (all paved) outside Aspen, between Aspen and Leadville. The town is down below the road, so you'd have to walk a little bit - which is probably why the place still exists.

The book "Jeep trails to Colorado Ghost Towns" would give you lots of info. I loaned mine to someone years ago and never saw it again. I don't know if it's been updated or still in print.

Phantom Canon was the route of the Florence and Cripple Railroad, it is a very scenic drive. Very narrow on the top end but easily traveled by regular vehicles, comes out at Victor, a scenic old mining town much like Cripple Creek. The F&CC railroad died because of the high cost of maintenance and having to rebuild it several times after floods washed much of the grade away. Shelf Road can be nasty and under a continued process of being rebuilt.
Check to see if it open before trying it. The Shelf itself is the former wagon road from Cripple Creek to Canon City. Served as a connection for Cripple Creek mines and the Rio Grande railroad. On the Canon City end is a very photogenic site with rock formations etc
called Red Canon Park. Good place for a picnic! If you travel Shelf Road you cannot stop or get out of your vehicle to make pictures while on the Shelf itself. A C. C. Law.

From Salida you can find a very well preserved 1900's town of Turrett. Many old buildings
etc.



Charlie......................................

Incredible Charlie! Thanks for all the info. It's back to maps for me. You've given me a lot to work with.

Bill Riley

DougGrosjean said:

Phantom Canyon is one old RR grade, but there's another that travels from CO Springs to Victor. Out of CS, it's called Goldcamp Road. Kinda hard to find, but it's near the Broadmoor. Once on it, it has nice views of CS in a couple spots, then passes through rolling foothills, green ranch country, through some narrow RR cuts, at least one tunnel. Easy drive, pleasant, scenic, but hard to find the start of it in CS.

Click to expand...

I had forgotten about that! Someone told me about another pass to Victor many years ago... I never did find it. I'll see if I can't find it on Google Earth... might be a better trek up to Victor than the front way through Cripple Creek.

Bill Riley

Photographica said:

I had forgotten about that! Someone told me about another pass to Victor many years ago... I never did find it. I'll see if I can't find it on Google Earth... might be a better trek up to Victor than the front way through Cripple Creek.

Bill Riley

Click to expand...

There's been several articles on the Goldcamp Road in the CO Springs papers in the past couple years. There's several old RR tunnels, and some (toward the start at CS) have caved in. Forest Service doesn't have the money to repair them, but that's what people expect them to do. Repair would be lots of $$$$.

Mountain-bike riders just go around, but nobody else can, so there have been alternate routes set up for people with motor vehicles. You miss a few tunnels at the start, but end up on the RR grade before you get very far out of town.

It's a very pleasant route, doable in a car. Rolling green ranchland before you get to Victor, and you still get a neat tunnel well out of CO Springs.

Hey, have fun. Will be a neat day trip.