Historic Archives - Bushwhack Lodge

August 3, 2025August 3, 2025Historic, In Town, Scenic Views

Things to do in Lake City, CO #11: Scavenger Hunt at Hinsdale County Museum

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the museum, we will make them our next Things To Do in Lake City! We obviously love everything about the museum but I have a few personal highlights. The first is that the scavenger hunt keeps my kids engaged and having fun for literal hours. Honestly, it does not seem to matter how many times they have done it.

My next favorite thing is the outdoor space. Being outdoors is the main reason we all come to Lake City. The museum understood the assignment. Half of the museum is outdoors. There is a gorgeous garden and places to sit. You can poke around the garage or the old buildings. It is a truly wonderful experience.

Lastly, the history of Lake City is engaging. I am a museum goer. If I am in a new place I will go to the museum. I have been to a lot of new places. Thus… many museums. I would say that the content in our museum is more engaging than 99% of the history museums I have been to. It is a combo of the actual history being engaging and the fact that there are many historical objects and not just pictures or descriptions. It also houses an incredible archive of old newsprint. It is recent enough history to feel relevant and old enough that the people documented there lived lives on what feels like another planet.

More formal info:

Nestled in the heart of historic downtown Lake City, the Hinsdale County Museum sits in the storied Finley Block building—Lake City’s first stone commercial structure built in 1877. With its handsome facade of dressed and rough stone, once called the “Stone Trade Palace,” it later housed the Odd Fellows Hall before the Historical Society transformed it into the museum we love today

Detail	Info
Location	130 N. Silver Street (at the corner of Second & Silver Streets) in downtown Lake City
Summer hours (Memorial Day–Labor Day)	Monday–Saturday: 10 AM–5 PM; Sunday: 1–4:30 PM lakecitymuseum.com
Admission	Adults $8; children under 10: $2; under 5 free

Please also check the calendar and join on one of the many tours they host.

July 1, 2025July 9, 2025Historic, Kid Friendly, Scenic Views, Short Hike

Things to do in Lake City, CO #5: Cleveland and Fanny Fern Mines Trail

Update: I have been warned that when you hit the double-track around Cleveland Mine, this becomes a private drive. Please be sure that if you hike this far and all the way to the Fanny Fern Mine that you are respectful the property and any signage you find there. As with many trails in CO, there is complex ownership along this trail. Mining claims are extremely common across all trails. Many owners are kind enough to let people hike through implied easements and we all need to be respectful and thankful and turn back especially if you hit Private Propert or No Trespassing signs.

Lake City is a historic Colorado mining town. It is also a great place to take a hike. So obviously, the best thing you could do is hike to a mine. But even better than that would be to hike to two old mines!

There is a trail just south of Lake City that starts up near the cell tower you can see from town. You drive up Alpine St and park just before the cell tower. As with most hikes in the Rockies, you will have to pay it forward by hiking up on the way in and down on the way out. This trail does not have an official name as far as I can tell but many people call it the Fanny Fern Mine Trail.

As you hike in, you get excellent views immediately because you are starting up high above Henson Creek. You will see the water pipes up there that feed the ice climbing wall in winter. Views of the canyon are spectacular and it is fun to see from above where you can go drive/hike/ride later on the way up to Engineer Pass. You get to have two perspectives of this unique canyon just feet from the center of town.

The trail splits a few times but (as far as I have seen) all those paths join back up together before you get to the 4×4 trail. This part of the hike is pretty easy compared to most trails in CO. As you will be taking the same trail out and back, you can hike in as far as you are able and just turn back when it feels like time. Even if you only hike a few hundred paces in, it is worth the trip.

When you reach the 4×4 trail, you are close to Cleveland Mine. Take a left to go uphill. There are a couple cool old buildings there. After this, the trail is more vertical. This is still minimal compared to most trails but worth noting if you are not used to this sort of hiking.

On my tracker, the total distance up was about 1.8 miles with 868ft gain. It took about an hour with a group of little kids and retirees. Not a stroll around town but not extreme sports either.

There are a million hikes around Lake City but this is one of my favorites to recommend because of the proximity and immediate views.

Things to do in Lake City, CO #5: Cleveland and Fanny Fern Mines Trail

Alpine Street, Lake City, Hinsdale County, Colorado, 81235, United States

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June 29, 2025June 29, 2025Historic, In Town, Kid Friendly, Scenic Views, Walk

Things to do in Lake City, CO #4: Historic District Ghost Tour

Every great historic town has a ghost tour and Lake City has one of the best. As you can imagine, an old mining town full of fortune and failure is full of spooking and wild stories. If you are around Lake Ctiy on a Friday in summer you should take the time to join the Ghost Tour as it travels around the Historic district.

While there are some spooky stories involved, there is something for everyone. There are historic facts and historic gossips. There are stories of the lawmen and lovers who have been gunned down in town. There are poisonings, lost children, old time justice, and tales of bad luck.

Lake City has a gorgeous downtown and it is always worth just wandering around and thinking about what it must have been like as a boomtown. If you would like some extra material for the campfire ghost stories, this is a good place to pick a few up.

We may or may not have had a few close encounters with the paranormal here at Bushwhack Lodge… Most of the old buildings have one story or another. Our basement dates back to the 1800s. If you miss the ghost tour, you can always get a good tale from one of the locals.

Ghost tours start right before dark on Fridays at the Hinsdale County Museum. This is one of the many tours offered by the museum and you should check the calendar to know what all is going on. As with anything at dusk in Lake City Colorado, you should bring a fleece and maybe a rain coat. We got a good splash of rain on this latest tour but stuck it out because it is fun even when the weather turns. Also, it is so dry here that I like to remind people that if they walk through a storm they will be dry by the time they walk in the front door. (That said, hypothermia is no joke if you are out in the woods.) There is a nominal fee that goes to the museum but it is well worth it.

If you are on the tour, pay close attention to the stories across the street from Bushwhack. I have heard a variety of first hand encounters from big strong men who are not willing to go alone into that building at night anymore.