Springtime in the Rockies unveils creative ways to scope out Keystone, Colorado real estate.  Forty-four miles of historic bikeways wind through Summit County past homes in Keystone CO and Frisco as well as Breckenridge and Copper Mountain CO real estate. 

If you've been searching the Rocky Mountain highs and lows looking for the best neighborhood for your family vacations or a second home in Summit County, try bicycling through on one of these three historic routes.  They all begin at the west end of Frisco's Main Street.  Parking is a block from Interstate 70's Exit 201. 
     1) Frisco to Dillon to Keystone
     2) Frisco to Copper Mountain
     3) Frisco to Breckenridge 

These bikeways are former routes for the narrow-gauge railways from the 1880s.  The Denver, South Park & pacific (DSP & PRR) and the Denver Rio Grande Western (D & RGW) railroads pulled their slow, rough-riding mountain trains through the community, taxiing ore along with supplies and people.  You may want to pick up a local history, such as Mary Ellen Gilliland's Summit, at one of our bookstores to fill your journeys with unseen but imaginable flashes from the past.

The 10-mile-long Keystone segment traverses Old Keystone, an old freighting station for silver ore produced by the Montezuma Mining District during the heyday of the gold and silver rushes.  Hundreds of regional silver lodes produced ore that burros (jacks) carried down steep mining trails to the Ski Tip Lodge where it was loaded on freight cars and transported to the Denver markets.

The Copper Mountain segment passes by the Juno Mine, then the gray tailings of the King Solomon Mine (which extends a mile into Mount Victoria) followed by the Kitty Innes, the Mary Verna, and then the overgrown foundations of the railroad commune called Curtin.  About 4 miles into the 6-mile segment is the Admiral Mine, one of the most productive in the lower reaches. 

The Breckenridge segment is about 9.5 miles long.  It passes through many old mining camps including Masontown which was destroyed by a snow slide in 1926.  You'll pass Bill's Ranch, the Hathaway Kilns, and the site of the railroad stop at Dickey which met its fate when six ore cars broke loose and thundered down miles of the slope and crashed into the station.  Past Tiger Road and the beautiful modern mountain homes, there was once a lively 1880's village named Braddocks where the Breckenridge Golf Course now lies.   Gold was struck here on the Western Slope of the Continental Divide in 1859.  Note the rock piles which are dredge tailings from gold boats that maneuvered through the Swan, French, and Blue River beds during the first half of the 20th century

Seeing between the lines of history, you'll appreciate the deep sacrifices borne by the hard-working settlers in our older communities.  Their stories add richness to our new mountain vistas and world-class ski resorts.  The Walsh Group and RE/MAX Properties of the Summit, the #1 Broker in the county, offers expert service and a few additional tales to help you find your own homestead in the area.  Call 1 (866) 513-0404 or (970) 513-0404 for assistance.