Maybe, but don't let the locals hear you say it. It's true, and you know it as soon as you arrive, that there are a great many things about Crestone, Colorado - a tiny town with an abundance of raw spirit - that fly in the face of even Boulder. The comparisons begin and end, perhaps, with Crestone's astounding concentration of spiritual seekers, Buddhists, alternative healers, silver-haired hippies and barefoot, dread-locked mothers with baby backpacks. The small, progressive community of less than 100 people rests against the slopes of the Sangre de Cristos in Colorado's San Luis Valley, with dramatic and much-photographed Crestone Peak presiding, and unofficially consists of the town of Crestone and the adjacent rural Baca Grande land grant development. Outside its boundaries, ranch land, jagged mountains and one-horse Colorado towns insulate it from the urbanization, and what many have considered bastardization, that has changed Boulder dramatically over the years.

Maybe, but don't let the locals hear you say it. It's true, and you know it as soon as you arrive, that there are a great many things about Crestone, Colorado - a tiny town with an abundance of raw spirit - that fly in the face of even Boulder. The comparisons begin and end, perhaps, with Crestone's astounding concentration of spiritual seekers, Buddhists, alternative healers, silver-haired hippies and barefoot, dread-locked mothers with baby backpacks. The small, progressive community of less than 100 people rests against the slopes of the Sangre de Cristos in Colorado's San Luis Valley, with dramatic and much-photographed Crestone Peak presiding, and unofficially consists of the town of Crestone and the adjacent rural Baca Grande land grant development. Outside its boundaries, ranch land, jagged mountains and one-horse Colorado towns insulate it from the urbanization, and what many have considered bastardization, that has changed Boulder dramatically over the years.

Its greatest charm may, in truth, be its daring authenticity. For better or worse, a drive into Crestone reveals no collection of quaint, old-but-miraculously-well-kept shops lining a charming main street, no puzzling array of dining options and not a single chain store, brand name hotel or any other familiar amenity ready to accommodate pocket-padded tourists. Instead, visitors find a retail void that's as alarming as it is refreshing. No matter, the views of Crestone Peak and the surrounding Sangres are a distraction from the moment one turns east from Highway 17 onto County Road T, the only way into and out of Crestone unless on foot... Read Full Article

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