Part 2 - Leadville, Colorado

Leadville, Colorado

Our first stop in Leadville was the train station. There’s a scenic tourist train that now uses the station and the old Alco steam engine was pretty cool! OK - at least I got my railroad fix satisfied! :-)

We then drove further up the slope above town on an old rough dirt road to find the abandoned mines. Greg has a friend who lives in Leadville and mentioned he and his friends had mountain biked back here so he knew the way. The dirt road was rock-strewn and rutted and the ride was super bumpy (Greg lives for these off-roading moments and was having fun driving!!).

Once at the ruins, I got out to photograph and Greg zipped away further up the hill - leaving me stranded without warning. He’s a rascal - ah the humor of your kids!!

Greg returned shortly and Cris was pretty shaken up but we regrouped and headed back down to find the mining museum.

The Lake

Greg and Cris went to Turquoise Lake nearby while I visited the museum...

National Mining Museum

The museum was awesome, replete with a full-scale walk-through of a mine, and really well done dioramas of the Leadville’s mining history and evolution. Four floors of amazing stuff (I did not even venture to the fourth floor!).

There are even uranium samples here

Model Railroad

Amazing dioramas

You enter a darkened blacksmith's shop and then walk through a mine!

Maps - Ooo Yeah!

Leadville Smelter (now gone...)

3D below ground visualization of one of the many many mines in the area

Wow - Leadville in its heyday!

I overspent my allotted time in the museum by 20 minutes and Cris and Greg were impatiently waiting for me in the car when I exited! We once again regrouped and headed on to Aspen.

Leaving the museum we headed out on Main Street.

Main Street

Part Three - Aspen, Glenwood Canyon >

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Further Info

Leadville, Colorado - Situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet, Leadville is nicknamed the Two-Mile-High City, A former silver mining town in its heyday, Leadville was the second most populous city in Colorado, after Denver.

By 1880, three years after the town was founded, Leadville was one of the world's largest and richest silver camps, As the population boomed, by 1878 Leadville had the reputation as one of the most lawless towns in the West. It had quite a few colorful characters in its Wild West history (click on the Wikipedia article link).

The district encompasses 67 mines east of the city up to the 12,000 foot elevation level.

Leadville mining district -  is located immediately east of the town of Leadville. It was the most productive silver-mining district in all of Colorado. 

Mineral Belt National Recreation Trail - The Mineral Belt National Recreation Trail is a 11.6 mile all-season biking/walking trail built on abandoned railroads beds. The trail loops around Leadville and through its historic mining district.

National Mining Hall of Fame - Check out a virtual tour >

Leadville, Colorado and Southern Railroad - the Leadville Train Ride (History)