Title: Alpine Loop Backcountry Scenic Byway Map | Colorado Vacation Directory
Headings: Colorado Scenic Byways Map
Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway

Colorado Scenic Byways Map
Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway
Depending on your time and the adventure your looking for, you can spend an afternoon or an entire week
exploring the Alpine Loop byway.
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CONQUER THE MOUNTAIN
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Silverton, Colorado
Scenic Byways in Colorado

Content: In the late 1800s, miners came west to strike it rich from the remnants of the volcanoes. Many of the towns boomed when the railroad brought mobility and transpiration into the Rocky Mountains. However, the towns along the Alpine Loop Backcountry Byway (Animas Forks, Gladstone and Ironton) were too far up the mountains to get railroad access. Now, only the skeletons of these mining towns remain. These towns did not endure the natural elements of floods, harsh winters, or being mined dry, but the scenery still survives, spending time on the byway is popular and a must do when on vacation in the Southwest..
Originally built as toll roads for the stages and freighters of the late 1800s, these roads are now your access into Colorado's frontier history. The Alpine Loop covers 65 miles of roads between the towns of Lake City, Ouray and Silverton. Depending on winter snows, the loop opens in late May to early June and closes in late October. Historic interest include ghost towns, abandoned mining camps, and cabins that were built from the mid-1870s through the early 1900s. The true star of this show is NATURE in all her glory: waterfalls, rare wildlife, spectacular fields of wildflowers, and geologic features such as jagged volcanic peaks, glacier-carved cirques, and canyons.