Crested Butte on Bikes

Aahhhhh... Crested Butte, Colorado. After spending a week there, I can honestly say that it's one of my favorite places to visit. The scenery is gorgeous, and this year's rainy spring has produced lush fields full of green grass and beautiful wildflowers. Combined with a quaint downtown, an awesome resort, and miles and miles of singletrack and it is the perfect spot for a mountain bike trip!

I find it funny that when you travel in Colorado, it's not really a “vacation,” but a trip. You might sip cocktails by the water, but only after you've hiked a mountain or biked across the landscape. The later is my favorite kind of trip! For our week in Crested Butte, we packed our mountain bikes, loaded up the camper and drove into Colorado's Wildflower Capital.

 

Crested Butte camping in Cement Creek

We set up camp at Cement Creek campground, a few miles south of town. It was the weekend of Crested Butte Bike Week so downtown is full of all kinds of bikes for their annual 24-hour race!

Crested Butte downtown bike week

There are a lot of great restaurants and bars downtown. My recommendations include: get pizza at the Secret Stash, burgers from The Last Steep and those after-ride beers and snacks from the Brick Yard Pizza Oven. You also can't go wrong with tacos or burritos from the Teocali Tamale.

Ok, enough about consuming calories, we need to talk about burning the calories. Crested Butte has amazing trails for hiking, biking, trail running or doing whatever it is you like to do outside. We found picturesque fields full of wildflowers that made me want to start twirling and singing “the hill are alive with the sound of music...” But maybe that's just me.

Crested Butte Snodgrass wildflowers

One of our favorite rides is to park in town and then put ourselves and our bike on the (free!) bus up to the resort, then pedal up Gothic Road a little further to the Snodgrass Trailhead. Take Snodgrass to Lupine to Lower loop and you'll end up right back in town after about 18 miles on the bike. It's a fabulous ride and a lot of it is flowy-downhill fun!

When you want to take a break from pedaling up the mountains, you'll want the lift to carry your bike up at Evolution Bike Park at Crested Butte Mountain Resort! They have a great selection of trails for every skill level. Their green and blue runs are fast and fun, or you can test your skills on their newest double-black diamond run, Captain Jack. We stuck to the former and had a blast!

Crested Butte Mountain Resort Riding Awakening

CBMR provides many activities and events throughout the summer. On any given day you can play mini-golf, zipline and jump into the giant air bag. On Wednesday nights, they have a free concert at the base of the mountain and a free downhill or cross-country bike race for folks that want to test their skills against the locals. Check out www.skicb.com for their full event line-up!

Crested Butte really is the quintessential mountain town with great views, awesome people and a wonderful atmosphere that makes you feel right at home!

To plan your trip, check out www.gunnisoncrestedbutte.com to find out about all of their activities, events and even great lodging deals.

Photos and story by: Lauren Forcey

 

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