Ashcroft Ghost Town — Castle Creek Valley Silver Camp at the Pearl Pass Terminus

Ashcroft was a silver camp that once had a few thousand people, a newspaper, and a pile of saloons. Now it’s a handful of preserved log buildings, a hotel, and a store sitting under the Elk Mountains. The Aspen Historical Society looks after the site with Pitkin County Open Space. You can wander the street and poke around the cabins in daylight. It’s a good place to stretch your legs and let the rig tick as it cools.

For Pearl Pass travelers, this is the Aspen-side payoff. The pass drops down the Castle Creek drainage and puts you on pavement a short way from the old townsite, so it makes a natural finish or turnaround point. Castle Creek Road is paved up here and carries summer tourist traffic, so expect company. Opening days and hours are seasonal and change, so verify with the Aspen Historical Society before you plan around a tour. Respect the buildings. They’re fragile and they’re all we’ve got of the place.

Have a dirty day.

Silver-boom ghost town at the Pearl Pass exit