Ghost Town Trails

Road-trip index

Ghost Towns near Denver

The survey records 229 vanished or historical sites within 100 miles of Denver, CO. Here's what's closest — and which places have full records worth planning a day around.

Charted towns within range

Caribou, CO~35 mi

Vanished Place

Boulder County's silver city at 10,000 feet, reduced to two stone shells.

Dearfield, CO~54 mi

Vanished Place

Colorado's Black homesteading colony — a dream the Dust Bowl took.

Gilman, CO~76 mi

Verified Ghost Town

A zinc-mining town on a cliff edge, emptied by federal order — and strictly off-limits.

Independence, CO~97 mi

Vanished Place

The town whose last residents skied out on boards torn from their own houses.

St. Elmo, CO~102 mi

Verified Ghost Town

Colorado's best-preserved ghost town, at the end of a canyon railroad.

Tincup, CO~105 mi

Near-Abandoned

A gold camp so rowdy it buried its marshals — now Colorado's sweetest summer ghost.

Closest surveyed sites — records pending

Wideawake, CO~29 mi
Perigo, CO~30 mi
Tungsten, CO~30 mi
Phoenix, CO~32 mi
Apex, CO~32 mi
Old Fort Vasquez, CO~33 mi
American City, CO~33 mi
Baltimore, CO~33 mi
Cardinal, CO~34 mi
Yankee, CO~34 mi

Every one of these is on the national atlas map — zoom into the Denver area to see them in place.

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