Toxic ghost town you CAN'T visit; Best wildflower spots; Overlooked summer town; & More

[00:00:08] Welcome to the OutThere Colorado Podcast. Once again, I'm Spencer, here with Seth. Hello, present, accounted for. And once again, we've got a lot of fun Colorado stuff to talk about today. A lot of adventure topics today. So, yeah, kind of adventure. Good for summer. Yeah, adventure inspiration. Yeah. People looking for something to do. But yeah, before we get into it. It's also our excuse when, you know, we just don't have a whole lot of, in my case, original reporting done for this week to present. So we get on topics that always sing, which is Colorado Topics.

[00:00:38] Yep. And I mean, it's been, we're coming in after the long Fourth of July weekend. Yeah. We all had a little bit of time off to just relax. And yeah, as far as the weekend recap goes, just to start there, we start there every episode. Weekend recap. I went back to Indiana. And normally we would go visit a little lake that's a short drive from my family's home there. And yeah, the lake was too flooded this year. A ton of rain out there.

[00:01:08] Oh, man. Yeah. All the beaches essentially washed away. I didn't think about that. Yeah, like beaches under like 10, 15 feet of water type of thing. So it was more of a hangout at home type of situation, which also great. Hang out at home and drink some good looking IPAs from the looks of it. Yes. Spencer texted me a picture of a Grateful Dead themed IPA. Had another one. I think it was called the M43, I think.

[00:01:33] I showed the picture to my wife and I said, if you ever wondered how my podcast partner thinks about me, this is it. Grateful Dead and beer. Grateful Dead and an IPA. Yeah, I had this one though. I definitely will talk about this because it might have been one of the best beers I've ever had. But Tart Strawberry M43 from Old Nation Brewing Co. Doubt you can get it out in Colorado. No clue. Might have to track some of it down. But very good like little strawberry IPA. Never had a strawberry IPA before. So that was exciting.

[00:02:01] Yeah, flew back in into Denver International Airport. Last night was supposed to get in at like 5 p.m. Ended up getting in at like 10.30 because of all those high winds up there. Yeah, we flew around in the sky for a bit and then had to go to Amarillo, Texas to refuel. No kidding. Went into Amarillo. I've never been in a situation like that. Yeah, they held us on the plane for like an hour, hour and a half or so. And I'm just sitting there hoping to make it back to Colorado.

[00:02:28] Were you starting to sing Amarillo by morning? You know, I was not. I've never been to Amarillo. Maybe you'll get to Amarillo by morning. Yeah, right. Now I got to go check it out. We'll see. We'll see. But yeah, so that was my weekend. Wow. A lot of relaxation, to be honest, which is exactly what I needed. That's great. Yeah, what did you get into, Seth? Glad to hear it. Glad to hear it. Well, I intentionally wanted to sing Amarillo by morning because I'm hoping a certain Texan is listening to this podcast.

[00:02:56] I'm going to be on the podcast, Ronnie, whom I got to chat with not too long ago as I'm working on a little story about Louie Louie's, which is a new piano bar, a first year piano bar here in Colorado Springs. Yeah, we've talked about it before. I love it. Right. Yeah, I love it. So you gave it a shout out a couple weeks ago, maybe something like that? Yeah. And I'm talking to Ronnie about Louie Louie's and what the place is all about and how I came to be. And he just sort of offhand mentions this podcast that he loves. There we go. I'm like, Ronnie, I'm one of those guys. He's like, holy crap, man.

[00:03:26] Yeah, did not know. So shout out to Ronnie. I told him I was going to say hello on the next podcast. I did not tell him I was going to sing a Texas-themed song like Amarillo by morning. There you go. Yeah, I mean. But there you go. Louie Louie's, Colorado Springs, kind of that South Tejon area. Very cool. Over by Atomic Cowboy. Very cool. Had a great time. I hadn't told Ronnie. I had a great time. Yeah, good vibes. I've been there four times now, I think. Have you? Yeah, three or four times.

[00:03:56] So that was my first time. Always a good time. Always a good time. And just the variety. It's that setup where they got the whole band on stage kind of playing audience for quests. And it's a fun time. There's people dancing, you know. And they do actually play your requests. Like every time I've gone there, I've been able to just write it on a napkin and it ends up being played. Talented people up there. Yeah, good vibes. For sure. Yeah, I had a great time. Shame on me. That was my first time, but I'll be back. Yeah, got to get back there.

[00:04:25] What all do you do this weekend? Oh, you want the landscaping update, I'm sure. Yes, the landscaping update. Saturday morning was at the dump getting rid of... I'm not getting rid of your mulch. I thought it was from last week. 30 bags. If you can picture those, I think I've said this, those tall brown ace bags. Yeah. Yeah, I got rid of 30 of those bags and borrowed my buddy's truck, dumped it all in there. So I was at the dump. There you go. That's it. Any more. And then Sunday, I had a great cookout.

[00:04:55] Got to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law in Castle Rock and got outside Sunday and got a little shopping done, which is not my favorite thing to do, but my aforementioned wife demanded it. Yeah, good weekend. You go to the Castle Rock outlets? Nope. Shopped in town. I didn't want to bother in Castle Rock shopping, but that's always, yeah, always odds and ends at the outlet mall for sure. Man, I get dangerous up there.

[00:05:24] Good deals. Good deals. Yeah. I need to pull back a little bit every time I go up there where I'm like, okay, this is enough for today. If we ever wondered where Spencer's flannels come from. Yeah. There's an Eddie Bauer store up there. You got the Eddie Bauer flannels up there. Mountain Khakis up there too. Mountain Khakis? Yeah. Mountain Khaki. But yeah. It's a cool store. Yeah. They got all sorts of like Colorado-y stores up there.

[00:05:51] I always recommend it's like once a year, you know, maybe go up before Black Friday around that time. And there's always a lot of deals, but. Grab your Auntie Anne's pretzel and go to town. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. They got the North Face store, the Columbia store, of course. Yeah. Mamut is up there as well. I always said Under Armour. Yeah. Under Armour. We're a lot of Under Armour stuff to the gym. Didn't buy anything, but there is a Lululemon. Lululemon. Yeah. Yep.

[00:06:17] I have yet to add any sort of Lululemon to my wardrobe, but I hear it's great. I don't think I have any Lululemon. Yeah. Either way, long list of Colorado-y stores up there that you can, and just athletic wear, mountain wear. Definitely check out those outlets. But yeah, let's get into it here. So the first topic we were going to chat about today was ghost towns to visit. But I think it might be interesting to start with a ghost town that you cannot visit, that has a very interesting past.

[00:06:47] This is something Seth has covered in the past, and he's been there from the road, looking at the town of Gilman. Tell us about it. Gilman from 24, Highway 24. If people are familiar between, am I right in thinking between Redcliffe and as if you're on your way from Redcliffe to Mintern going west? Yeah, you're like past Leadville, right? Past Leadville. Yeah, past Leadville. Past Redcliffe. Mm-hmm.

[00:07:15] Before Mintern, I think I'm thinking of that, right? Mm-hmm. There's a pretty well-defined pull-off that has been frequented for years from people looking out across the valley, like over to this cliff where resides the old town Gilman, which was a big mining center that operated, I think, in like the early 1900s, extracting zinc.

[00:07:42] It was a top producer of zinc going into the war years there especially. And this town boomed. And from the highway, people want to know, wait, you can't go there. Let's address that real quick. You can't go there because in the 80s, I want to say, is that right? It was declared a Superfund site. So yeah, you'll see the signs like alerting no trespassing, hidden and visible dangers, and risk of injury or death.

[00:08:10] Those were the signs that were posted. Strong words there. Strong words. Yeah, strong agency. That's the Environmental Protection Agency. So yeah, decades, generations of this mining have resulted in pretty clear toxic dangers there that exist on the site explaining why people should not be going there. Nonetheless, if you do a quick Google search, you'll see there's bloggers and types who have

[00:08:40] trespassed and gone into some of the buildings that you can still see there. Some of the company offices and some of the company housing. And yeah, those pictures. I'm honest. I haven't gotten there. I'm literally just speaking on the pictures I've seen on the internet. It looks like Chernobyl. It looks like they're just up and left. There's documents. There's pictures of families sitting on desks still. There's clothes and shoes. Even from the highway, you can see old pickup trucks from that era.

[00:09:09] And you've been to the highway spot. And you're allowed to look. You can see a lot. Yeah. It's it, you know, and especially if you've got a good camera. I mean, I was with a photographer who got pretty neat photos. So you can see those on outtherecolorado.com and gazette.com. And I'm looking at them right now. Like, yeah, like the schoolyard. There's just like the swing sets are still there. Like I said, the trucks. I thought the trucks were really trippy because like clearly the people who are living there

[00:09:38] evidently just left them there from the looks of it. Yeah. The photos do make it look like they're just kind of up and left. Yeah. Like just kind of just, you know, if you were to leave somewhere in a hurry. Yep. Type of situation. And it's cool. I'm looking back again. Like, yeah, you can see that. I'm assuming I think these are. Oh, yeah. Eagle County Historical Society. These photos where, yeah, they have old photos of the town that was and compared to today. Like, yeah, there's the schoolyard.

[00:10:03] There's the mining office right there as the road bends around Battle Mountain. Kind of these things just hanging on to the cliff. And I remember, you know, I was like in Red Cliff and there's people, at least at the time when I was doing some of this reporting, there's people, you know, who have memories of that place, who live there, grew up there.

[00:10:24] You know, it's kind of interesting to look at a place that looks like long gone but still very much alive in the minds of people today. It looks like this New Jersey zinc company was managing that town from 1912 to 1977. So, or something along those lines. So, quite a few decades that they were there. Yeah, kind of like, yeah, and just, again, very popular drive.

[00:10:53] And, you know, if you're looking at admiring the scenery, as I'm recalling, it's pretty hard to miss. I mean, I think it's right there. I think you see it pretty clearly. And, yeah, a lot of people would just pull off and take pictures and wonder what the heck was that. Dang, that's Gilman. Yeah. So, you can't go in Gilman. If you're curious, there are some photos and videos online that you can find of it. But, yeah, do not go in. Literally a super fun site.

[00:11:22] You can read about it, though. Yeah, it is a potentially very toxic area, we'll say. But, yeah, no, super fascinating stuff. What other ghost towns you got on here? Yeah, let's get into that. So, ghost towns that you can go to. Yeah. I've got two. First one, I've probably mentioned it on here several times. But St. Elmo goes down right outside of Buena Vista. Very well preserved. People actually still live kind of in that general area.

[00:11:52] It's easy to get to. Yeah. No, that's definitely one to add on your list. If you're in that Buena Vista, Salida area, summer is a perfect time to pop up there and just kind of see what that life is like. I think I want to say at least 1,000 people were up there at the time. But you got all the buildings. You can't go inside most of the buildings. There's one building that has a general store that's sometimes open. But, yeah, you can't go inside most of the buildings. But they do have a lot of information there.

[00:12:21] You can look into the buildings and see what it looked like. And, yeah, really unique kind of thing to do in Colorado that gives you this look into the 1880s, so to speak. Right. Yeah. Great spot to add to your list. The other one that I had that I wanted to mention is Animus Forks, another ghost town. This one's in southwest Colorado, right outside of Silverton.

[00:12:48] Not as much there as there is at St. Elmo, but the trip to get to this one is awesome, right? It's kind of like this dirt gravel road. But you're in this mountain basin just right at the end of that Alpine Loop area, and it's just a stunning, stunning mountain scene. Just open basin. Whenever we were down there, I was down there for a work trip, like, I want to say like six years ago or so. But we rented some of those razors.

[00:13:17] Oh, yeah. That you can rent. We were actually down there working with the company. For full disclosure. But, yeah, I think it was like the rock pirates, I want to say, is who we were down there filming with at the time. But, yeah, the razors, awesome. Because there's so many roads in that area outside of just Animus Forks where you can just kind of go up into these mountain basins and just drive around and explore. And there's all sorts of little mining ruins around.

[00:13:45] And, yeah, just a really cool Colorado experience, especially for summer. Just getting up there in the high Alpine and just driving around and exploring that, like, wild west that's still up there. Yeah. Yeah, what do you got? The last one I was at was off Independence Pass there. Oh, which one's that? I think it's just called Independence, right? I think you're right. Yeah. And there, again, very visible. Independence Pass between, oh, you know, go from Buena Vista-ish over to Aspen. Yeah, like Twin Lakes. There you go. It's kind of a...

[00:14:16] There you go. But, yeah, up from, yeah, Buena Vista up through Twin Lakes over to Aspen. Yeah, that's a beautiful, well-preserved site. I mean, a lot of... There's presence. There's a presence and attention to the preservation of those old cabins up there. I think in the summer, maybe it's just on the weekends, but there's kind of a little visitor center-ish that's established itself in one of those old structures. So, you know, there's someone who can tell you about history there when you're there. But, yeah, from the highway, there's a pull-off, and you hike down to it.

[00:14:45] Oh, cool. Yeah. Not a terribly steep descent. Short, you know. So, but good way to stretch off your legs on the drive for sure there. And, yeah, it's beautiful. You can, at least when I was there, you can hear the roaring fork going pretty strong, the river going strong, and very peaceful setting. Yeah. I want to pitch a tent. And I'm looking this up right now as you're talking about it. Found it 10,900 feet. Yep. Or so.

[00:15:15] Very accessible. And that's something where anytime I'm in any of these ghost towns, you just, it's impossible not to just sit there and think about, like, what life would have even been. Like, more than, you know, 150 years ago in these super remote areas, very prone to avalanches often. Yep. And just insane amounts of snow. Yeah. Like, they close Independence Pass, you know, seasonally. So, it's closed in the winter because it's too dangerous to drive.

[00:15:44] Yet, you know, more than 100 years ago, you got people just living up there. Yep. And just somehow being self-sustaining. And that's pretty wild in terms of just, like, the survival aspect. Yeah. Yeah. Cool stuff. There's a little spot off of the Alpine Loop there. Is that ringing any bells? Is that? Is it? Animus Forks? I didn't think so, man. Yeah, Animus Forks is off. Maybe you're right. Alpine Loop. It's kind of on that Silverton side.

[00:16:14] It's, like, 12 miles, 10, 12 miles away from Silverton, northeast of Silverton. That one's at, like, an elevation of over 1,100 feet. Okay. I think I might be thinking of, I'm looking at an old list now. Sorry, 11,000 feet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm looking at an old thing of a list. Capital City, maybe? There's a little marker for Capital City. Yeah. Off of, you know, closer to Lake City.

[00:16:44] Mm-hmm. Yeah, Hensdale County. Yeah. Yeah, that might be the one. Because Alpine Loop is, I have not done the drive. I've always wanted to do the drive or ride. I'd probably take my dirt bike. But, yeah, I mean, that loop's, what, like, 77 miles just kind of meandering through this high alpine terrain? I think it's the most gorgeous. I mean, you got to have the vehicle and know-how for a lot of it, like Engineer Pass and some of that stuff, Cinnamon Pass.

[00:17:11] But, yeah, that loop is just so breathtaking. I mean, that drive, yeah. Going into, is that American Basin right in there? Mm-hmm. I think so, yeah, yeah. It's gorgeous. But, yeah, Capital City, I'm reading from an old report here at the Gazette. The name recalls long-gone ambitions. Upon its founding in 1877, a year after Colorado gained statehood, George Lee declared his settlement Capital City for his hopes to sit here as governor.

[00:17:42] Hard to imagine. Well, long way from Denver. Well, it would capture Colorado, though, right? That would be pretty awesome if Colorado's capital was just, like, just a remote mountain down. Like 400 people live there. All right, we're starting the petition. Yep, let's do it. All of our... How many signatures do we need? We're moving the capital to the remains of Capital City. Yeah, sorry, Denver. Founded in 1877 with a gorgeous log building.

[00:18:11] Not quite as big as the Capitol building, but the view is much prettier. Yeah, definitely would say it looks a lot prettier than Denver. No offense, Denver. Just hills awash in Aspen. I'm looking at a photo right now. Mm-hmm. Yes. Ready for fall. But we're in the summer. We need to talk about more summer adventures. Yeah. We do. Ghost towns, like, out east fascinate me. Like Deerfield? On the plains. Isn't Deerfield a good? Yeah. Definitely comes to mind. That one, I think, is... Roamed around Deerfield with a guide before.

[00:18:41] I think Deerfield is set up to be pulled into the National Park System, potentially. I think it was nominated, last I heard. Yeah. Historic town. Very historic town. So a very great history. Yeah. Early 1900s, it was home to about 300 black lives who had moved there to make a new life, have land of their own. You know, part of this movement after...

[00:19:11] What? So this was in the early 1900s when Deerfield was rising to prominence. Yeah. I'm reading Oliver Toussaint Jackson. There you go. Yep. Founded in 1910. Mm-hmm. Inspired by a white colony in Greeley, Colorado. This is from the National Park Service website. But yeah. And Denverites were known to go and drive up and go to the lunchroom, as it was described to me. Great baked goods and great food was coming out of there.

[00:19:39] And even today, even on the old dirt roads, you can see remains of the old general store and dance hall and blacksmith shop, as I'm recalling, and the mechanic shop. You know, because they would have seen automobiles come along before the Dust Bowl and World War II closed the chapter there. Yeah, I'm reading here. Pretty much.

[00:20:05] Also, National Park Service website hit its peak between 1917 and 1921. A very wet 19 period during the 1910s helped them really, you know, grow those crops and establish that agriculture. That's what it was. And then it got really dry in the 1920s and even drier in the 1930s. Yeah. Tough life out on the plains. Yeah. That's an amazing history. Yeah.

[00:20:29] And then I met a guy by the name of Heath Gay who's been doing books kind of about hidden places all around the state. And really interesting books with really interesting photos. And the places that he's come by out on the eastern plains were fascinating. I'm trying to go back and this literally just came to mind. Yeah. In Haswell. Haswell. H-A-S-W-E-E-L.

[00:21:00] E-L-L. He found what was marked as, like there's a sign marking this little building as the nation's smallest jail. Hmm. And it apparently housed up to four inmates through the 1920s and 30s. Smaller than the hearts of jail that you drive by on 24. I keep thinking about it. What did he tell me about that? I was like, are you kidding me? Dude, that would be a... He came by this... It is. Oh, where was this?

[00:21:25] He came by this outhouse that was marked as, quote unquote, the most welcoming outhouse. And it's in Arlington, Colorado. Again, southeast. I'm pretty sure we're talking about the southeast. Yeah. Just a wooden commode that he found was like adorned with like art and flowers beside a guest book. You know, like people were signing a guest book at this. You know? And what... You drive by it and you're... I bet you don't think that's an outhouse.

[00:21:55] You don't think that's a place to go to the bathroom. I mean, it literally looked like a vertical shack, you know? Like part of all the other ruins on the plains. You know, I think my favorite place to go to the... Use the restroom in Colorado that's like an established spot to use the restroom is that one up in the Boulder Field of Longs Peak. Oh. See that one? Oh, yeah. That's a good spot to use the restroom in Colorado. But hey, next time you're on the southeast plains, don't forget about Arlington. You could make a stop at the most welcoming outhouse. Well, there you go. I don't know anything more about this.

[00:22:24] He runs a great web page. Facebook page is what I've been following called Colorado Fan Club. Nice. Where he posts really cool stuff. Yeah. Very cool. Just like that. Yeah. Yeah. You got a whole write-up by stuff here on the Gazette website called Meet the Colorado Springs Explorer Captivating 40,000 Facebook Fans with Weird, Famous, and Forgotten Places. I learned a lot of stuff from him, including something about like the Ice Palace that was once in Pueblo. Oh, there was an Ice Palace?

[00:22:53] I know we've talked about the one in Leadville. Right. Have not talked about an Ice Palace in Pueblo. And I didn't know about that either. Something about... I'm very foggy on that history. But I think there was some pretty impressive ice sculptures in there as well. Hmm. Once upon a time. Cool stuff. For a very brief period. Well, yeah. Check them out. Colorado Fan Club. We don't give you all the information. We just tell you to go look for it yourself. And speaking of information where we're going to tell you to go look for things, you want to get into some wildflowers?

[00:23:23] Yeah. We just had a piece come out about that this week. Yep. It is officially wildflower season in Colorado. Snow melted pretty early this year compared to the norm. So if you're up in the Alpine, you know, it's going to be its peak time of the year. So if you want to go hunt down some flowers up in some of Colorado's higher elevation areas, right now is the time to do so. Yeah.

[00:23:47] Our well-seasoned photographer, he'd probably appreciate me referring to him as that well-seasoned, Christian Murdoch. I mean, just to give you an idea of the kind of guy Christian Murdoch is, photo editor at the Gazette, he drove to shoot wildflowers in a day that spanned 508 miles. Just one day. 508 miles. Jeez. Got up. Got a lot of good shots. Got up. Went up Independence Pass.

[00:24:15] Did photos along Indy Pass. And he dropped into Aspen. And he veered off toward Castle Creek. Which I'd never driven up Castle Creek before Maroon Bell's there. I take it. I think that's right. Yeah. I think I've been up Castle Creek. Because I think you go up Castle Creek when you're climbing Castle and Conundrum. Okay. Yes. So I've been up there for that. Yeah. He said the flowers were gorgeous. Yeah.

[00:24:39] And then he went on over to, skipped on over to McClure Pass and turned on to Kepler Pass toward Crested Butte. He can never resist Crested Butte. He's got to go to Crested Butte every wildflower season. Which, as we all should, that should be a pilgrimage. I think the festival starts this weekend. The Wildflower Festival. Let's look that up. The Wildflower Capital of Colorado. That one's a longer festival, too. Isn't it like 10 days? 10 days. Yeah. Annual 10-day festival. Yep.

[00:25:09] Yeah. That's... I mean, hey. Crested Butte, whether you're talking... Yeah. Here we go. July 11th to July 20th. Yeah. Whether you're talking flowers in the spring and summer or the aspens in the fall, that's... Crested Butte is a stunning, stunning part of Colorado. No doubt. I asked a couple years ago, I asked some flower experts what their favorite places were, and they mentioned some places that kind of surprised me. Me too.

[00:25:40] I'm going back to the list now. You know, I think we've talked about Mueller State Park. Yeah. Yeah. Mueller State Park. Also great for aspens. I can't... Yeah. That's what I've always gone to it for. I can't say I've really gone to admire the flowers there, but the Colorado State University assistant professor of horticulture I talk to loves that place. Same with Staunton State Park, also on the Front Range. We're talking state parks.

[00:26:09] Let's see. Cottonwood Pass, Independence Pass. A fella at the Crested Butte... One of the organizers at the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival mentioned Colorado National Monument. Oh, really? Some of the desert flowers that maybe we don't think about. That's cool. High Plateau. That always reminds me of the big sunflowers you see kind of out on the eastern plains too. They really boomed this year. I've seen pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Where it's just... You got to be careful with trespassing because a lot of those are in farms where you can't...

[00:26:37] You can look at them from the road, but you can't go into them, but... Yep. He mentioned the Pawnee Butte out northeast Colorado, which you don't really think about. That makes sense. Yep. I like... Man, I always just... All the 14ers this time of the year, just being up there. Pick a 14er and go. Yeah. I'm one of those people. I'll stop throughout the entire hike, just taking photos of every unique flower I see. Yep. Some of the best ones I saw, I think, were on...

[00:27:04] I guess it was a few years ago, back when it was called Mount Evans, but now Mount Blue Sky. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Saw some really good flowers up there, and of course, that's a little bit harder to get to this summer, too. Right. Just with the closure of Mount Blue Sky Road for the summer, yeah. But you can still access it via the Sawtooth from Beardstadt over there, so... Mm-hmm. But yeah. Yeah. Pick a 14er and you're going to find good flowers this time of the year. Good point. For sure. American Basin. Mm-hmm.

[00:27:32] Talked about that right off the Alpine Loop there. And the San Juans. I mean, yeah. The San Juans. I love going to the San Juans for flowers, for sure. Yeah. It's just so remote out there, and there's just so many big valleys that you can just kind of, yeah, explore. And yeah. American Basin's one of those that you hear people talk about all the time with Forge Wildflowers. Yankee Boy. They tend to pop up there like mid-July to early August, according to the Forest Service. Mm-hmm. Yankee Boy Basin. Same thing. Mm-hmm.

[00:28:02] Which is gorgeous. Yeah. A good but brief time of year when those blooms greet us. For sure. Mm-hmm. I wish the weeds would stop greeting me in the yard. Man, everything goes back to the yard. Sorry. Yeah. No, I get you, man. I get you. I put so much weed barrier down in this most recent round of like renovating. Does it work? Does it work? It's working. It's working pretty well. There are still somehow things that pop up, though. I'm like, how?

[00:28:32] How? How? Very resilient, apparently. Yeah. What else we got on our list? How about this one? The backcountry hut. Oh, yeah. You mentioned this. The oldest and newest backcountry hut in Colorado. I've got a story coming on. Maybe some of you have heard about this. The North London Mining Office is how it's referred to, which refers back to this history off Mississippi Mosquito Pass, right? Not too far up Mosquito Pass.

[00:29:01] So if you're coming off the highway there near Alma, just about seven miles up, just when it starts getting pretty rough and rugged, you turn off at a point. And leads to just this gorgeous basin of wildflowers and beaver ponds and just creeks cascading down the hills. I was there and elk were just hanging out in the green hills around and willow, thick willow

[00:29:28] where it's very easy to imagine moose being around and indeed they are. And marmot are running around there. And then there's just this huge, old, crumbling, leaning, but under-renovation, under-stabilization mill. This old mill that ran back in the 1880s and 90s. The North London Mill.

[00:29:53] And beside that is this old office building, which before just a few years ago was very much collapsing and on its way out, before this couple went in and restored it. And with huge help from History Colorado's preservation funds, a pretty robust program there, they were able to restore this old mining office.

[00:30:19] And it is now, yeah, what they call, what the couple overseeing this place calls Colorado's newest and oldest backcountry hut. So this past winter saw people skiing there and staying there for the first time. But it's gorgeous to go there in the summer too. Right between, so it's got Mount Sherman to the south and Mount Democrat to the north. Toward Kite Lake, you know, the trailhead for, yep. So give you a little bit of your bearings if you're just listening here. Yeah.

[00:30:46] And it's, yeah, it was just gorgeous up there. We all have photos. And most of the huts around Colorado are related to the 10th Mountain Division. Right. So that's, you know, that's the next century. So it's like, you know, like 1940s, 1930s, 1940s. But if people listening are familiar with, there's also like that overnight hut. I'm not too familiar with it. I've been there. Up at the top at Boreas Pass. Mm.

[00:31:15] This more so resembles something like that. Yeah. Inside. Ken's Cabin. Is that what? Maybe. Or the Boreas Pass section house. It might be section house. The section house, I think, yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, the mining office here has, you know, bathroom, shower, water, fully stocked kitchen, sleep six to eight, get a group together, you know. And you rent them. It's a great time. Exactly. Yeah. You can rent it. Booking a campground anywhere else in the state.

[00:31:44] Similar process. That's what I was telling them. I was like, man, like, of course, like, backcountry huts are so ingrained in, like, winter recreation. Mm-hmm. But, like, for a location like this, talk about a 14-year base camp. Oh, yeah. You know? For sure. Yeah. That's awesome. And, again, just kind of being with all that old, you know, kind of going back to our ghost town topic, you know, to see some of these remnants just backdrop by the stunning alpine beauty. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I really enjoyed my time there. Yeah.

[00:32:13] The ghost towns are one of those things where they don't get talked about. For people that are out of state in Colorado, you know, they come here for the skiing or they come here for, you know, the hiking, et cetera. But I didn't even really, before I moved here, I had no clue that all these ghost towns were just so, you know, just spanning everywhere in the mountains. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:32:33] And I could be wrong, you know, but I think there, you know, in my mind, I remember talking to the folks with this new hut, right? Like, gosh, how is this stuff here, you know? Mm-hmm. When I think of the alpine elements, I think of just how fierce and brutal it is. Mm-hmm. But this wood, I guess, hangs pretty good against these conditions. Mm-hmm. I mean, evidently. Yeah, definitely.

[00:33:00] So I think there's something to that, that, you know, I haven't been in the landscaping business long enough to know how these materials hold up. But I guess there's something to that, explaining why these remains are around the state. And just the simple fact that we are not an old state. Colorado is not an old state, just like America is not an old country if we really want to go that far. But Colorado founded in 1876. 1876.

[00:33:26] Right, you know, not all that long ago when people, and again, a place like this, the North London Mining Hut, this mining office goes back to 1883, I want to say. And it appears that operations continued around that mill into the late 30s or maybe even 40s. Dang. But, you know, I mean, not quite 100 years ago when stuff was going on here. And now you can stay there. I think it's like above 11,200 feet, I want to say.

[00:33:56] Mm-hmm. Just gorgeous. Very cool. North London Mining Hut. Yeah, we kind of touched on here. Okay. We've got enough time for one more topic, I think. Mm-hmm. And this one's going to be a question that I'm going to ask you. This summer, what is your top mountain town to visit? Kind of ties all these topics together. But one town that you're picking to spend time in this summer. What are you looking forward to?

[00:34:22] Well, I do, very personally, I got to get to Durango. I think I've talked on this show. I have not spent much time in Durango. Mm-hmm. So there is a plan slowly in place to do some time in Pagosa Springs in Durango. Yeah. So if that's the question, like where do you want to get to this summer, that's it. But if, in my mind, like quintessential Colorado summertime, we mentioned Crested Butte. Yeah.

[00:34:48] Those wildflowers for everything else around that town. I love Crested Butte. It's almost impossible not to let your mind go to Crested Butte whenever you're thinking of a summer town. Summer wildflowers, yeah. I'm going to throw out a different one. Yeah? That I haven't really talked about much on here, I don't think at all. Mm-hmm. But every time I've been that way, absolutely love it. I'm going to say Westcliff. Mm-hmm. Kind of like a often overlooked town. And you're not going to Westcliff for like the nightlife, right?

[00:35:17] You're going there because it's a great base camp for some amazing hiking, stunning views. That's a great point. Right there by, you got Humboldt Peak there, you got Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle. Yeah. Kind of in the same area as like Mount Lindsay, which just reopened. And just a ton of camping. Just like, if you're looking for remoteness, like it's down there in the Sangre de Cristo's, but, you know, not far from the Front Range. And I think it's, you know, it's like a... Is it a couple hours from Colorado Springs? Yeah. I'm going to...

[00:35:47] I think it's like two and a half. Yeah. You got to want to... It's always one of those places like you got to want to go to it. Oh, no. It's an hour and a half from Colorado Springs. Is it really? That's what... Yeah. That's what Google's telling me. So, yeah. So, yeah. It's day trip. Yeah. Very much so. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and just that... That's a great point. What is it? The South Colony Lakes down there? I was going to ask. Underneath Humble and... What's the Lake of the... Lake of the Clouds? You know, I always hear it's a great hike and set up a tent there. Lake of the Clouds? Is that right?

[00:36:17] Lakes of the Clouds? No. I mean, as you can hear me talk, that is definitely a place that I've really hardly scratched the surface. Oh, it's beautiful, man. Like, every time I'm down there, like, I've done a lot of day trips for the 14 years down there. Yeah. I just want to always go back. I'm always like, there's so much here. Yeah. Lake of the Clouds, right? Right outside of Westcliff. Yeah. Or Westcliff. That's a great hike. Yeah. And I always hear that as, like, an overnight. You want to backpack that. That'd be cool. I've always heard it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be curious.

[00:36:46] I feel like I popped into a barbecue place there once upon a time. What is in Westcliff these days? Yeah. I don't know. They do have events throughout the year and everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get an email from their PR person. Tourism. Tourism. Yeah. And it sounds like there's some stuff going on, but I mean. Shakespeare? There's a Shakespeare thing over there? There's some sort of Shakespeare thing. Yeah. I mean, but I would say, like, yeah. Going out there and just kind of doing that, like, backpacking. Yeah. Just camping, finding a good spot. Yeah.

[00:37:16] That's quintessential Colorado to me. Yeah. That's a great tip. I got to put that on my list for sure. Yeah. It's the South Colony Lakes. That's right below Crestone Peak, Crestone Needle. So maybe one of the best views in the state, I would say. Yeah. You're just in this, like, just this alpine basin and just have the stunning, stunning Crestone Needle just towering above you. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful spot. That is very much true Colorado for sure. Cool. Well, yeah.

[00:37:44] I think that about covers everything we wanted to chat about for the day. You want to get this thing wrapped up, Seth? Yeah. Until next time, we will see you out there. Colorado. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it. One day we'll nail it.