Animas Forks: A High-Altitude Ghost Town on Colorado's Alpine Loop

Animas Forks began in the 1870s as a high-altitude mining settlement in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, with its first structure completed in 1873. By 1883 roughly 450 people lived there, and at its height the town had cabins, a hotel, a general store, a saloon, a post office, and its own newspaper, the Animas Forks Pioneer.

Mining profits eventually fell off; a brief revival came with the Gold Prince Mill in 1904, but that closed in 1910, and the town was a ghost town by the 1920s. The Bureau of Land Management's Gunnison Field Office now manages the site, which sits along the Alpine Loop at about 11,200 feet above sea level.

Because Animas Forks is reached by the rugged Alpine Loop road system rather than a paved highway, RV travelers typically base a rented motorhome in Silverton or Lake City and explore the high country from there. The thin air, the open tundra, and the surviving cabins make it one of Colorado's most photogenic preserved townsites.