Ashcroft, Colorado
Cross Country Skiing

Ashcroft is an historic ghost town at an elevation of 9,500 feet, 10 miles up Castle Creek from Highway 82 going into Aspen. In the winter, there is a cross county ski area with 35 kilometers of trails. One mile above where the road ends is the Pine Creek Cookhouse, a great restaurant serving lunch and dinner, summer and winter. You can ski in or can be brought to the restaurant by horse drawn sleight. Also in Ashcroft is the Toklat Gallery, an excellent art store.

These links tell you more about these activities:

Pine Creek Cookhouse and Ashcroft Ski Touring http://www.pinecreekcookhouse.com
Toklat Gallery http://www.toklatgallery.com/index.html
Ashcroft Ghost Town, http://www.aspenhistory.org/ac.html from the Aspen Historical Society http://www.aspenhistory.org/index.html
Ashcroft: voices from a Colorado Ghost Town by Tracy Houston, published in Trail & Timberline, the bimonthly magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club http://www.cmc.org/cmc/tnt/964/ashcroft.html

Jim and I have skied at Ashcroft many times. On these pages are photos we took during those times. Both in 2000 and 2002 we spent the night of January 1 at the Kellogg Cabin, renting it from Ashcroft Ski Touring. In 2000, it was our way of celebrating the Millennium. We arranged it again in 2002. Both times we had a great time.

We checked out of our hotel on January 1. We had a wonderful lunch at the Pine Creek Cookhouse, skiing up from the King Cabin. After lunch we skied back to the King Cabin and the parking lot and picked up our gear. We rented a sled. The Kellogg Cabin is about 3 miles up from the King Cabin. Both times, we reached it about 5 pm.

We packed in our dinner and breakfast. The morning of the next day, we skiing up the road. Then we skied back for lunch at the cabin. We then skied back to the car and headed home.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!