The highest city in America sits two miles up in Colorado, and it’s still very much alive

Two miles up in the Rockies

Leadville, Colorado, sits at 10,152 feet above sea level, and that makes it the highest incorporated city in the country.

About 2,600 people live here, in a high valley pinched between the Sawatch Range to the west and the Mosquito Range to the east. Colorado’s two tallest peaks, Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, rise just miles from town.

The Arkansas River starts in these same mountains, and the Top of the Rockies Scenic and Historic Byway runs right through. You’re about 100 miles west of Denver, and it feels like a different world up here.

Gold ran out, then miners struck silver by accident

In April 1860, a prospector named Abe Lee found placer gold in California Gulch, about a mile east of where Leadville sits now. Miners swarmed in.

By the mid-1860s, the gold had dried up and most of them left.

Then, in the mid-1870s, the ones who stayed figured out that the heavy black sand clogging their equipment was silver-rich lead carbonate.

Leadville was founded in 1877, and by 1880 more than 15,000 people lived here, making it the second largest city in Colorado behind Denver. Gas lighting, water mains, churches, hospitals, and banks went up fast.

When Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, silver prices collapsed and the economy cratered, but the town held on through mining gold, lead, zinc, and later molybdenum.

The opera house built in 100 days flat

Mining magnate Horace Tabor put up the Tabor Opera House in 1879, and the whole thing took just 100 days.

The three-story building went up in stone, brick, and iron, with 16-inch-thick walls, red velvet seats, and gas lighting. John Philip Sousa and Oscar Wilde both performed on its stage.

In 2020, workers discovered the largest collection of historic stage scenery in North America hidden in the attic, with hand-painted curtains dating to the late 1880s.

The city bought the building in 2016, and a multiyear rehabilitation wrapped up exterior wall restoration in late 2025. You can catch tours and performances from Memorial Day weekend through early fall.

Walk 70 blocks of Victorian brick on Harrison Avenue

Leadville’s downtown covers 70 square blocks of Victorian-era architecture, all designated a National Historic Landmark District.

Harrison Avenue runs through the center of it, lined with colorful brick buildings that went up between 1880 and 1905.

You can grab a free self-guided walking tour map at the Visitor Center at 460 Harrison Ave., and it covers more than 30 stops. The Delaware Hotel opened in 1886, and several churches date to 1879.

No chain stores here, just local shops, cafes, and galleries.

If you’re into fleece, Melanzana makes its popular hoodies right in town, though you’ll need an appointment to visit.

Step inside a replica mine at the old high school

The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum sits on West 9th Street in a building that started life as Leadville’s high school around 1900.

Inside, you walk through a replica of an underground hardrock mine that gives you a feel for what miners dealt with every day.

The Gold Rush Room holds specimens of native gold, and an elaborate model railroad shows how mining-era transportation moved ore out of the mountains.

A short drive east of downtown, the Matchless Mine, one of Leadville’s most famous silver operations, opens for visits.

Nearby, the Healy House Museum dates to 1878, and the Dexter Cabin next door looks rough-hewn on the outside but is furnished in surprisingly fine style.

Lap the whole town on an 11.6-mile paved trail

The Mineral Belt Trail loops 11.6 miles around the entire city on pavement, and it opened in 2000. The whole thing is ADA accessible, so walkers, runners, cyclists, and in-line skaters all share the route.

You pass through aspen groves, conifer forests, and wildflower meadows with Mount Elbert, Mount Massive, and Turquoise Lake filling the skyline.

About six miles of the trail cut through the historic mining district, where interpretive signs and old mining artifacts tell the story of the silver boom.

The trail also follows remnants of the Colorado Midland and Denver and Rio Grande railroad lines. Multiple trailheads let you pick your distance, so it works for all ages.

The two tallest peaks in Colorado start 10 miles away

Mount Elbert tops out above 14,400 feet, making it the highest peak in Colorado and the second highest in the Lower 48 after Mount Whitney in California.

The most popular route runs about nine to 10 miles round trip with 4,500 feet of elevation gain, rated Class 1, so no ropes or technical gear.

Mount Massive stands about 12 feet shorter, Colorado’s second tallest, sitting just west of town. Its standard route covers roughly 14 miles round trip.

Both trailheads sit about 10 miles from downtown along Halfmoon Road, and the Sawatch Range has more than a dozen fourteeners within an hour’s drive.

Fish, kayak, or camp at 10,000 feet on Turquoise Lake

Turquoise Lake spreads nearly 1,800 acres at about 10,000 feet, named for old turquoise mines in the area. You can fish, boat, kayak, or paddleboard here, and both motorized and non-motorized watercraft are welcome.

A trail along the north shore gives you about six flat miles with lake and mountain views. Eight U.S. Forest Service campgrounds ring the water, offering around 300 campsites.

About 15 miles south, Twin Lakes sit at the base of Mount Elbert.

The Interlaken Trail there takes you to the remains of an 1880s luxury resort, slowly being reclaimed by the forest.

Ride a train along the Continental Divide to 11,000 feet

The Leadville Colorado and Southern Railroad pulls out of a depot built in 1896 and follows old mining-era routes through San Isabel National Forest.

The round trip takes about 2.5 hours and climbs roughly 1,000 feet above the valley floor, topping out near 11,000 feet.

You pick between open-air and enclosed cars, and the views cover Mount Elbert, the Arkansas River Valley, and Fremont Pass. A narrator fills the ride with stories from Leadville’s mining days.

The railroad runs seasonally with summer, fall, and winter schedules, plus special themed excursions throughout the year.

Ski troopers trained for war 15 miles north of town

Camp Hale sits about 15 miles north of Leadville at 9,200 feet, and President Biden designated it the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in October 2022, spanning 53,804 acres.

The U.S. Army built the camp in 1942 to train soldiers in mountain and winter warfare.

The 10th Mountain Division, the Army’s first and only mountain infantry division, learned skiing, rock climbing, and cold-weather survival here, with about 15,000 soldiers housed at full operation.

That division fought in Italy’s Apennine Mountains in 1945 and helped break through German defensive lines. After the war, many veterans came back to Colorado and helped build the modern American ski industry.

You can take a self-guided driving tour with interpretive signs, and a memorial at Tennessee Pass honors the soldiers killed in combat.

Ski where the 10th Mountain Division first learned to ski

Ski Cooper sits just outside Leadville near Tennessee Pass, on the same slopes where 10th Mountain Division soldiers trained during WWII. Lift lines stay short, and the snow is all natural.

In early 2020, the resort opened 70 acres of new expert terrain in Tennessee Creek Basin, bringing its total to about 480 skiable acres.

The Tennessee Pass Nordic Center has groomed trails for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and fat biking. Every winter, Leadville hosts a ski joring competition where horses pull skiers down Harrison Avenue.

The town’s long winters and heavy snowfall also bring snowmobiling and Nordic skiing on groomed trails across the area.

The 100-mile race crosses Hope Pass at 12,600 feet

Leadville built its name in the endurance world with the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile ultramarathon held every August since 1983.

The course loops around Turquoise Lake, crosses Hope Pass at about 12,600 feet, reaches the ghost town of Winfield, and comes back.

A 100-mile mountain bike race joined the lineup in 1994, and both carry the name “Race Across the Sky.” Boom Days, a summer festival, celebrates the town’s mining heritage with music and parades.

Just outside town, the Leadville National Fish Hatchery has operated since 1889, the second oldest federal hatchery in the country, spread across more than 3,000 acres with hiking trails and wildlife.

Explore Leadville in the Colorado Rockies

You can reach Leadville by heading west from Denver on U.S. Highway 24, about 100 miles out. At 10,152 feet, give yourself one to three days to adjust to the altitude before you push hard on the trails.

Summer brings hiking, biking, and water sports. Fall turns the aspens gold.

Winter opens up skiing and snow sports. Stop by the Visitor Center at 460 Harrison Ave. for maps and local tips.

San Isabel National Forest wraps around the city, with three wilderness areas, Mount Massive, Buffalo Peaks, and Collegiate Peaks, all within 20 miles.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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