Loving Leadville at 10,200′

Cloud City Cottage

Spent the 3rd weekend  of June at Leadville just hanging out soaking up the high altitude rays. No, this was not a training run or LT100  race prep for my husband. We just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary and thought Leadville would be great getaway. Perched in between the high mountains of Mt. Sherman, Mt. Massive and Mt. Elbert this old mining town will not disappoint.  We stayed at the Cloud City cottages and it was a delightful turn of the century cabin that has been renovated.  We planned to climb some mountains while we were there, but it didn’t pan out.

Mt. Massive

Old General Store

We drove around and did a little off-roading looking for places to explore. Leadville is rich in history like Estes Park and there are old buildings and mining treasures all over. One day we rented bikes and rode the Mineral Belt trail 12 miles around the perimeter of Leadville. We saw the old general store and awesome views of surrounding mountains. We took it counter clockwise and it was pretty steep on the Western side so allow plenty of time for breaks. Along the path there are plaques detailing Leadville historical facts or notable figures. If you stop and read them all it paints a picture of this wild west mining town during the boom time.

Mineral Belt

While we were trying to find the Mt. Sherman trail head we encountered this sign and road block. We tried to reach the trail head twice, the first time we there and didn’t see the signs.

It is not like RMNP where trail heads have huge green signs and paved parking lots. After some searching on the internet we realized that we were in fact at the right location. The next day we tried again and ran into two guys who had a stroke of bad luck and two dead vehicles. We ended up taking them back to town. After wards, it was simply too late in the day to start climbing a Fourteener. We decided it wasn’t our time to climb Sherman. We are ready for the next time.

Road Closed Ahead

Obstacles in the Road