Creede

Creede once earned a reputation as Colorado's rowdiest mining camp, and was immortalized in an evocative poem by the local newspaper editor, Cy Warman. "It's day all day in daytime," he wrote, "and there is no night in Creede." Every other building back then seems to have been a saloon or bordello. Bob Ford, who killed Jesse James, was himself gunned down here; other notorious residents included Calamity Jane and Bat Masterson. As delightful as the town is today, its location is even more glorious. About 96 percent of Mineral County is public land, including the nearby Weminuche Wilderness to the south and west and the Wheeler Geological Area to the west, where the unusual rock formations resemble playful abstract sculptures or M.C. Escher creations. The Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail, two of the country's most significant long-distance recreational paths, pass through Mineral County.