Lake City

Lake City—with its collection of lacy gingerbread-trim houses and other Victorian buildings—has one of the largest National Historic Districts in Colorado (more than 200 structures). Lake City is a quaint little town and a point of departure for superb hiking, fishing, and four-wheel driving in the Gunnison National Forest. A geological phenomenon known as the Slumgullion Earthflow occurred some 700 years ago, when a mountainside sloughed off into the valley, blocking the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and creating Lake San Cristobal, the state’s second-largest natural lake. There’s a scenic overlook along Highway 149, just south of town, with a sign explaining how this happened.