Animas Forks: A High-Altitude Ghost Town on Colorado's Alpine Loop
PickRV Editorial
The small team behind PickRV
At 11,200 feet on Colorado's Alpine Loop, Animas Forks is a BLM-managed mining ghost town where the old cabins still stand above timberline near Silverton.
Where is Animas Forks ghost town and who manages it?
Animas Forks is in Colorado's San Juan Mountains on the Alpine Loop, at about 11,200 feet, and is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The site is a public historic and cultural area; the high-clearance backroad is best reached by basing a rented RV in the Silverton or Lake City area.
- ·BLM-managed (Gunnison Field Office), open to the public
- ·Sits at roughly 11,200 feet on the Alpine Loop
- ·Peaked near 450 residents in 1883
- ·A ghost town by the 1920s, with cabins still standing
State
Colorado
Managed by
Bureau of Land Management (Gunnison Field Office)
Elevation
11,200 feet
Peak population
About 450 residents by 1883
Founded / abandoned
First structure completed 1873; a ghost town by the 1920s
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.
Official sources
Nearby & related
Keep planning Colorado
Sourced costs, campground directories, and the places worth a detour — the next layer of Colorado trip planning.
- Colorado RV rental costFuel · camping · tax, sourced
- Colorado RV-friendly campgroundsHookups, rig limits, booking tips
- Campervan & van rentals in ColoradoVan-life routes, rules & rigs
- RV rentals in ColoradoPickRV Wiki · 6 min read
- Hot springsSoak-worthy road stops
- Caves & cavernsShow-cave trip guides
- National monumentsProtected-land guides
- Deep trip guidesLong-form seasonal playbooks
Planning an RV trip near Animas Forks: A High-Altitude Ghost Town on Colorado's Alpine Loop?
Was this guide helpful?