Ghost Town on Alta Lakes Trail

One of the several highlights of hiking the Alta Lakes Trail is the ghost town of Alta, about 0.6 miles from the lakes. Alta Lakes Road turns east off of Highway 145 between Telluride and Lizard Head Pass, just north of Ophir in southwest Colorado.

The site appears to be well protected, apparently on private property with fences deterring any poking around inside the old structures. They certainly had a good view from up here, around 11,000 feet up.

Water for the mining activity was probably managed using the Alta Lakes which appear to have been engineered using small earthen berms. The Alta town site was the center of mining activity in the Alta-Gold King area from 1877 to 1948. A fire in the mill ended the activity here. It is about four miles along the steep Alta Lakes Road to the town of Alta.
Alta was one of the first Industrial sites to use alternating current electricity. A long distance transmission line was completed from the Ames power plant on the San Miguel River on June 21, 1891.


The Ames power plant still operates using water from nearby Trout Lake. Some of the pipework is visible along the Galloping Goose Trail.