Rico Today: A Mining Town That Never Went to Ghost

Plenty of Colorado silver towns emptied out when the ore ran thin. Rico, tucked into the San Juans at roughly 8,800 feet, just kept going. Its 1880s main street still stands, and many of those old buildings have been fixed up and put back to work.

Walk it now and you’ll find that artists make up a real part of the town. Several keep studios and galleries here, and you can often step in and watch the work happen. A few restaurants are scattered through downtown, and there’s a motel plus a handful of bed-and-breakfasts if you want to stay the night rather than just drive through.

The setting does a lot of the talking. The Dolores River runs right past town, good for catching trout from the bank. Old mining roads and singletrack climb the surrounding slopes for mountain biking, and the route over the pass eventually points toward Telluride. When the snow comes, the backcountry around Rico draws skiers.

It’s small, and that’s the appeal. Relics from the 1880s boom still sit in plain view alongside a town that quietly never quit. To plan a visit, start with Colorado.com’s Rico page.