Crested Butte Elopement Guide (Updated for 2024)
Crested Butte is one of my favorite gems in the state of Colorado. It has rolling green hills, a quaint little mining town, and tons and TONS of wildflowers. I grew up visiting Crested Butte ever since I was a little kid, and since then, it’s gotten far more expensive and more well-known to outsiders, but the wilderness of the area is still just as pristine and magical to be in now as it was when I was a kid. I love nothing more than to show my couples my favorite places all around the state, so I made this guide that has everything you need to know about having your Crested Butte elopement from where to elope and where to stay.
Table of Contents
Why elope in Crested Butte?
Best time of year to elope in Crested Butte
Activities in Crested Butte
Elopement locations in Crested Butte
Wedding venues in Crested Butte
Hiking trails
Locations that don’t require a hike
Accommodations in Crested Butte
Why Elope in Crested Butte?
No Permits Needed
With the exception of a few locations a part of the Crested Butte Land Trust like Woods Walk or Peanut Lake, most places to get married in Crested Butte (and the surrounding wilderness) don’t require a permit for groups of 15 or less.
Quaint Accommodations
The most beautiful cabins and hotels with amazing views are nestled in every little town in the San Juans, which just adds to the overall experience of the day.
Waking up with your love in a secluded mountain chalet nestled at the base of a mountain peak is a perfect way to start your elopement day. Or maybe spending your evening in a chic hotel with an excellent bar run by climbers and snowboarders, walking down the block to an old saloon in an old mining building is more your vibe.
Every town has its own charm and beautiful stays that can accommodate your taste!
Wildflower Season
Crested Butte is famous for its vast meadows of wildflowers — so much so that there’s even a wildflower festival in June. There are a lot of college and grad students who live in the area for part of the year studying the flowers, bugs, and native biodiversity in the area because Crested Butte is such a phenomenon in what a sanctuary it is for native flora. Crested Butte truly is such a heavenly place for this reason.
Fewer Crowds
A lot of areas in Colorado are very crowded with tourists, particularly places within a 3 hour radius of Denver — just on the other side of the Maroon Bells from Crested Butte is Aspen, which is full of tourists, and very crowded, especially at the Maroon Bells.
While I’ve seen Crested Butte gain popularity in the last decade, it’s still significantly quieter and more serene than most other areas in Colorado. Most trails and natural areas in and outside of town don’t have more than a handful of other people visiting at any time of day.
Crested Butte is a little further from Denver than some other places, but the extra hour or two in the car makes it so much more worth it.
Excellent Food
Honestly, Colorado is not known for its food, especially not in the small towns in the mountains. However, Crested Butte is the exception to this. Even though it’s just a teeny tiny little town, there are some amazing restaurants and bars with very good food and drinks.
Whether you want to include this into your elopement day or just visit some restaurants during your visit, I highly recommend checking out some of the food in the area.
Best Time Of Year To Elope In Crested Butte
Summer: Mid June-August
Summer is, in my opinion, the BEST time to see Crested Butte in all its glory. The wildflowers are so abundant, the lakes are all unfrozen, and the mountains are so green and expansive.
This is the busiest time to be in town, but even at its peak, Crested Butte still isn’t as crowded in its natural areas as many other vacation destinations around the state. The only thing to keep in mind during the summer is that there are afternoon showers that are quite common in the mountains, so some umbrellas are a good thing to pack — most storms don’t last longer than 30 minutes, though.
Fall: September-early October
Fall in Crested Butte is some of the best leaf peeping in the state. The aspen trees on Kebler Pass are one of the world’s largest living organisms, with miles and miles of interconnected aspen trees, which all turn splendid gold in autumn. There are a bunch of aspen groves all over the forest outside of town, so finding a beautiful view of yellow aspens isn’t hard to access.
The weather in September and early October is also usually very consistently sunny. If you want to catch the aspens at their peak, the last week of September and the first week of October are when they usually change. The window is very short — earlier in September or later in October will mean green trees or bare branches.
Winter: November-March
Crested Butte is a ski town, so a lot of people live in the area for the snowy winters. Crested Butte is much smaller than most ski towns and doesn’t have a huge resort, so it isn’t as busy or as touristy as places like Aspen, Breckenridge, or Vail.
Trails and unpaved roads will be closed during this time, so locations will be limited, but if you love the look of a snowy winter wonderland, Crested Butte is perfect for that. The best time for consistently snowy landscapes is January and February. Since Crested Butte is such a small resort, it often closes earlier than other ski resorts in March.
Spring: April-early June
Honestly, I can’t really recommend visiting Crested Butte in spring. Springtime in Colorado is just not the best time of year weather-wise, especially in the mountains. There’s a very high likelihood that there might be a snowstorm, nothing has bloomed yet, everything is still brown, and the melting snow makes everything very muddy.
The upside to springtime is that there are very few people around; however, that also means that a lot of restaurants, the ski mountain, and trails are closed down, so there isn’t much to do.
Wedding Activities in Crested Butte
Hiking
Crested Butte doesn’t have as many trails as some other parts of Colorado for some reason, but the ones that are in the area are all incredible. All the trails overlook green rolling hills, meadows dotted with wildflowers, and red and purple mountains here and there.
Rafting
The Taylor River just outside of town is well known for its rafting for both beginners and more experienced rafters. Ski bums usually spend the summer on the river for as long as the snow runoff lasts, which is usually toward the beginning of the summer. August is usually when rafting has to come to an end because the river is too low.
Jeeping/Off-Roading
There aren’t as many trails around Crested Butte as there are in the San Juans, but there are still some beautiful trails that leave from town that lead to beautiful campsites, stunning mountain views, and blue alpine lakes. Alpenglow Rentals offers Jeep rentals if you don’t want to take your own car up some of the trails. Some trails are more intense than others, but many can be done in a vehicle with decent clearance.
Biking
In the summer, the ski mountain right in town converts to biking trails, where you can take the gondola up to the top of the mountain and ride mountain bikes down. There are also extensive biking trails along most hiking trails that vary from easy to difficult.
Elopement Locations in Crested Butte
The best wedding venues in Crested Butte for a micro wedding or elopement:
Crested Butte Reception Venues + Private Dinner Venues
Crested Butte Hiking Trails For Your Elopement
Rustlers Gulch - 9 mi
Washington Gulch - 7.5 mi
Scarp Ridge - 4 mi
Green Lake - 8.5 mi
Locations that don’t require hiking
Lake Irwin
Emerald Lake
Paradise Gulch
Crystal Mill (4x4 required)
Cottonwood pass summit
Need a Crested Butte Elopement Photographer?
I was born and raised in Colorado, and I love showing all my couples around my favorite little mountain towns like Crested Butte. Whether you want to hike into the backcountry or just have a private dinner in a little cabin, I’ll be there to capture it all. Reach out, and we can plan something amazing!
