10 Reasons Crested Butte is America’s Coolest Small Town
- Stunning seasonal beauty + wildflowers dubbed the “Wildflower Capital of America”.
- Iconic mountain biking roots and extreme lift-served skiing (plus top-notch Nordic trails).
- Lively arts, music festivals, and a colorful historic downtown.
- Amazing local food scene with zero fast-food chains and tons of creative dining.
- Playful, free-spirited culture where costumes, parades and art are basically everyday life.
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1. The Sheer Beauty
There are a lot of pretty places, but our mountains know how to beautifully deliver white, green, red, gold, orange, and all sorts of colors of the rainbow during winter, spring, summer, and fall.
2. Wildflower Frenzy
If you think “Wildflower Capital of Colorado” is just some fancy marketing slogan, you’ll become a believer when visiting the end of June through early August. Someone once wrote it’s like riding a bike through a florist shop.
3. Bike Crazy
Crested Butte is synonymous with mountain biking as one of the birthplaces of the sport. No kidding. Most locals also have a bright townie cruiser and/or a road bike in their two-wheel collection, and there are biking trails and events galore.
4. Skiing Mecca
While there is plenty of mellow terrain for the smallest of tykes and people who prefer cruising, we are proud of the fact that we can throw it down the most lift-served double black diamond terrain in North America and smile about it. Crested Butte Nordic also provides some of the finest groomed trails on the planet, we’re sure of it!
5. Music on Tap
Some of the world’s top talent regularly grace our stages, inside and out, at live music venues around the Gunnison Valley. We are musically blessed.
6. Colorful Town, Colorful Downtown
All of Colorado’s mountain towns have distinct personalities, and Crested Butte has a reputation for being free-spirited. It’s been that way since our Eastern European roots. One look at our National Historic District downtown with colorful paint jobs that somehow seem to work, and you know you’ve landed someplace special; even our Mountain Express buses are painted brightly with scenes by local artists.
7. Off the Beaten Path
It has saved our soul and our land, plus the ski slopes and trails we love so much are not overrun with people, and stay “I always wish I had my camera” gorgeous.
8. Just Say Yum!
All that exercise in the outdoors is bound to make a person hungry, and we like our food homemade and fresh. You won’t find any fast food chains here, but you will find everything from latkes and sushi to elk tenderloin and ultra-creative pizza pies at the restaurants on Elk Avenue. From a former miner’s shack turned high-end French bistro and authentic Nepalese food to gourmet small plates prepared by a James Beard Foundation-hosted chef and skiing to a five-course dinner in a yurt, we’ve got you covered.
9. Never Too Serious
If you have a costume or like to see people wear costumes, Buttians know how to dress up to ski, to parade and dance. Wear a costume down the street, and people probably will just nod and smile.
10. Artsy to the Core
Just walk along our downtown streets, and the sheer number of art galleries, including a vibrant artist cooperative in our historic town hall building, is sure to surprise. Plein air painters dot the landscape year-round, and the Crested Butte Arts Festival is one of the busiest weekends of summer.
