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Crystal City/Devil Rating Trail Photos  Return to Trail List   
Gunnison, CO: Trail Head: N 39?4.496, W 107?9.548  Trail End: N 39?3.590, W 107?5.820
Delorme CO Atlas & Gazeteer pg: 46, 1-D
Nearby Trails: Coming Soon.


Access: From Crested Butte, CO take Gothic Road past the ski resort and stay left. This turns into Forest Road 317 and takes you over Schofield Pass (10,707 ft.) while following Rock Creek. Continue on FR 317 till a fork at which point you'll vear left on FR 314. FR 314 will take you past Beaver Lake, Marble, and eventually to Highway 133 which can be taken North through Carbondale where you can take Highway 82 North to I-70.




Trail: The trail, as I took it from Crested Butte to Marble was relatively easy in a stock Pathfinder. The road going down between Sheep Mountain and Crystal Peak was quite the spectacular view with a steep drop off on the passenger side. Shortly after this rocky descent, you'll notice the Deadhorse Mill off to the left. It's a great place to grab some photos. There are many places to camp and fish all along the trail! Schofield Pass and Lead King Basin are nearby trail runnable along with Crystal City Trail.

8/2001: Around noon on the 18th of August my wife and I headed for the Crystal City trail by Crested Butte in our stock Mazda B3000 truck. The trail starts off really easy to find and drive (thus noted by the many cars on the road) so in all your sight seeing try not to run over anyone. Gothic is an interesting town so if you have time, stop and take a look around. Once you get through Gothic the immensity of the mountains and the land will pretty much take your breath away. I really think this is the most beautiful area of Colorado.
Getting to the summit of Schoefield Pass is a relatively easy drive; however, the trail is quite narrow throughout and will require someone backing up a ways if you meet someone. There are a lot of good spots to pitch a tent along the trail (coming out of Gothic all the authorized areas are marked). If you plan on camping stick to a spot that has already been used, don't make your own. Once you get to the sign stating your on Schoefield pass the trail gets ever so slightly more difficult. For the majority of the trip there is nothing a stock vehicle will have trouble with. There is truly only two obstacles on this entire trail. Amazingly enough they're on the same stretch of road. After the second stream crossing; which was up to my doors when we went through, is when the trail changes from " this ain't nothing" to "Hmm." The first obstacle is a boulder that has fallen partially onto the trail. I have a narrow truck and with the driver side mirror pulled in we had a couple inches to spare on each side (there's a big drop on the other side). There's really nothing tricky to it, other than not falling off or hitting the boulder. Shortly thereafter you come to a nasty little rock garden, with a lift or bigger tires this should be a piece of cake. In a stock truck you need a good spotter and confidence in your driving. I heard the sound of metal on rock a couple times, but nothing to nasty. After those two areas the trail stays rocky and bumpy, but nothing to worry about. The rating of 5 has to come from that one section of trail. All in all, it was an awesome trip great camping, great views, and a great time.
-Benton Barby


G.P.S. Coordinate List:
No Extended G.P.S. data for this trail is available.