Hidden Near Aspen Is Colorado's Secret Ghost Town That Spotlights Incredible Mountain And Waterfall Views

Colorado is no stranger to abandoned mining towns. Nevadaville comes to mind, a purportedly haunted gold rush town that sprang to life in 1859, as does St. Elmo, an extremely well-preserved ghost town which is now a proper tourist site with a general store and walkable main strip. One abandoned mining town, Dunton Hot Springs, has even become a two-star Michelin luxury resort. 

Crystal City is a different kind of ghost town altogether, one located deep in the Rockies via a roundabout, roughly 60-mile-long, countryside route from the closest notable town, Aspen. ATVs or 4WDs are your only bet for infiltrating the last 6 miles of road so rough and rocky it takes hours to navigate. While a handful of cabins around the ghost town center wait for private summer use, the centerpiece of it all is Crystal Mill, a widely photographed, riverside structure that's sadly come under assault from visiting vandals. 

Crystal City, also just called Crystal, came to life in 1880. In a story that mirrors many other boom towns, its population swelled and shrank, reaching about 500 maximum and about zero by 1917. The centerpiece of the town was Crystal Mill, the now-famous structure that serves as many travelers' reason for visiting. Build in 1892, the mill was a three-part, technological powerhouse (compressor house, gear house, and penstock) that helped streamline the town's mining, but which fell out of use in 1917. Now, the rickety but photogenic mill stands atop a cliff ledge and waterfall, which when combined with the surrounding, forest-coated Rockies creates an irresistible allure for photographers — professional and Insta-amateur alike. 

Crystal City and its main feature, Crystal Mill, make superb waystations during a trip through the Rockies. The main road of the ghost town, near its iconic Crystal Sign, is lined in old, wooden cabins that serve as summer cottages for their owners. They might not be rentable, nor are they enterable (as some visitors have mistakenly tried to do), but they're worthy of admiration. This old town stretch affords stupendous views of the rugged Rockies on all sides, as does the challenging hike to Crystal. 

That nine-mile-long trail, dubbed Crystal City Road #314, starts near Beaver Lake in nearby Marble. County Road 3 east from Beaver Lake syncs up with Crystal River and leads directly to Crystal and its mill. You'll have the cascading flow of the river and mountains as your companions the entire way, as well as a difficult, super rocky and dusty path that gets a lot of traffic, judging by reviews on AllTrails. At the end, Crystal Mill and its waterfall await.

When visiting Crystal City, visitors can lodge in Marble. Contrary to the the cabins in Crystal, Marble has a pretty luxurious and upscale selection of impressive, wooden properties to rent. In town there's one — yes, one — restaurant, Slow Groovin BBQ. But there's Marble Hub and Coffee Bar housing the visitor center, and Raspberry Ridge Café at the Inn, serving baked goods, breakfast burritos, and sandwiches. Visitors who stay multiple nights can make the trek into Crystal one day, and enjoy the ample amount of outdoor activities like cross-country skiing, horseback riding, fishing, big game hunting, kayaking, rock-climbing, birding, fall foliage hikes, and more.

Folks wanting to see Crystal City should do so sooner rather than later, because the site has sadly come under assault from thoughtless visitor behavior. As the Colorado Sun reported in 2023, Crystal Mill owner Chris Cox closed the road to the river below the mill — the spot that drew selfie-crazed crowds — because some visitors partied inside the 132-year-old structure, hung a hammock from the rickety wooden walls, flew drones overhead, and most unbelievably, drew a gun when told to pay their $10 entry fee. Such absolute disrespect is reminiscent of Grand Falls on Navajo tribal land in Arizona, the much-loved "chocolate falls" that got shut down in 2023 following ruinous and destructive visitor behavior. 

While Crystal City and its mill are still open, and the Crystal City Road #314 trail still accessible (judging by reviews post-2023), it stands to reason that Cox might shutter the whole place if similarly bad behavior repeats itself. As it stands, the closed trail to the river has been obliterated and smothered in logs, and Cox put up ropes and "no trespassing" signs. He also closed the Crystal General Store that sold snacks and drinks to visitors. Cox points the finger at Instagram for driving people to the site who otherwise have no interest in appreciating its beauty and history. And indeed, one Crystal Mill Instagram page has 13,800 posts at the time of writing (complete with a Minecraft mill reproduction), while another, smaller page highlights visitors as much as the site, itself. 

Worst-case scenario, Colorado does have other ghost town options, some of which we mentioned. Barring that, nothing can take away from the grandeur of Colorado's landscape, of which the area around Crystal City stands a pristine representation.