Visiting Crystal Mill has always been at the top of my bucket list of places to visit in Colorado, I'd just never gotten around to taking the trip... until this past weekend! I wanted to camp nearby and I knew this would be one of the last warm weekends, plus with all the leaves changing I figured this would be the perfect time to go. So a friend and I packed our gear and headed out for our weekend adventure!
Crystal Mill accessible via Marble which is southeast of Glenwood Springs where we stopped for dinner before we headed to our campsite in Carbondale. We used Hipcamp to find a place, which is kinda like Airbnb, but for camping. We were so tired after driving and setting up our site that we passed out by like 8pm. The following morning we got up early, packed up our gear and headed to Marble. The drive from Carbondale to Marble was beautiful with all the changing colors and only took about an hour. What took the longest was getting up to the actual mill.
I knew in advance that the trail was rough and narrow and only accessible via 4x4, but I have a Jeep so I wasn't worried about it. However, probably about halfway up we decided it was a little too sketchy so we opted to hike instead. It was about 7 miles round trip but it was worth it! We saw lots of people in ATVs going up the trail, which honestly, seemed like the way to go. If I do it again I'll probably rent an ATV because it looked like so much fun!
At the top you can pay a fee to sign a waiver and cross the barrier to get closer to the mill, but we chose not to because the views were amazing regardless. The aspens were a beautiful bright yellow and there wasn't a cloud in the sky!
After we hiked back down to the car, the drive down was *fun* because the road is super narrow and only one vehicle can fit at a time, so there were a few instances we had to back up and let another car through which was a little terrifying because, well, it's a mountain and the drop off in most places is pretty steep. But we made it and had an absolute blast!
1 of 8 2 of 8 3 of 8 4 of 8 5 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 8 of 8