The middle of September into the first week or so in October
is in my opinion the best time of year in Colorado . With a forecast of at least
five clear days with relatively warm temperatures ahead at the end of
September, I decided a little road trip was in order. While it seems like I
planned to cover a lot of ground in Colorado’s central mountains around
Leadville, Aspen, and Crested Butte, relative to the state’s overall size I
planned to be in a relatively concentrated area. My goal on this trip is to
visit some of the best areas for leaf peeping with a high concentration of
aspens relative to evergreens and spend some time exploring the towns I
mentioned that I’ve mostly driven through or stopped in rather briefly.

I made Leadville my first stop. The town is not much more
than two hours from Denver, first up Interstate 70 and then over 11,318 foot
high Fremont Pass on highway 91. One of
the notable features of Fremont Pass is that, despite its altitude, the drop
down into Leadville on the south side of the pass is rather gradual and not
that great compared to many passes in the state. That’s because Leadville is
located at about 10,200 feet and was until recently considered the highest
incorporated town in America . That changed about a decade or so ago when
smaller but slightly higher Alma a few miles away on the other side of the
Mosquito Range decided to incorporate.

Leadville is probably one of Colorado’s most historic towns
as a late nineteenth century mining boomtown that was once the biggest city in
the state. It has since fallen on hard
times and is now one of the poorer towns in the mountains, largely a bedroom
community for people who work over the passes in the resorts in Eagle and
Summit counties. There still is some mining in the area at the Climax mine
(mostly molybdenum, I believe), but the mine opens and closes with market
conditions and doesn’t employ that many people anymore. It’s enough, though, to
have kept Leadville from ever approaching ghost town status.

It seems Leadville would have potential as a ski resort like
Breckenridge and Aspen and other former gold and silver rush mining towns, but
despite its elevation the area isn’t as consistently snowy because it is
technically on the drier eastern side of the Continental Divide . So Leadville
basks in a kind of faded glory, one with relatively small numbers of tourists
who come mostly in the summer to enjoy the surroundings lakes and mountains.

I’ve stayed in Leadville a few times in winter for cheap
lodging when doing cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the area between
days of downhill skiing at Vail or Copper Mountain. I have also stopped many
times for lunch or dinner on my way to summer hiking in the Sawatch Range, and
also did a cross country ski loop once on the 12-mile loop trail that circles
the town and goes up into the hills to the east past many of the mining sites,
a ski trail with a lot of historic markers and stops.

This time, though, I decided to spend a good part of the day
exploring the town’s history at its multiple museums in historic houses as well
as those dedicated to Leadville’s heritage and mining history, including the
National Mining History and Hall of Fame. What is it with halls of fame? Does
there have to be one for every sport, activity, or endeavor?

And, of course, I stopped at the Golden Burro Café on
Harrison Street downtown for lunch . The Golden Burro has many items on the menu
that come in massive portions, but if I’m in Leadville for breakfast or lunch
or dinner, I always get a version of their smothered burrito with cheese and
green chili. They’re enormous and must contain about 3,000 calories per
serving, the breakfast version being especially rich and delicious.

Leadville’s mining district spreads all around the town and
especially upwards onto the slopes of the Mosquito Range to the east. This all
seems quite idyllic, but the old mines leach heavy metals and cause a lot of
pollution. The old mining buildings and equipment that are continuously falling
into further decrepitude are picturesque but can be dangerous. I decided to
drive around on some of the meandering back roads though the areas where much
of the mining history took place that are still badly affected ecologically.
The scenery over the town and towards Mount Massive was spectacular on the
clear day.