What Is The Crystal Mill And Where Is It?
The Crystal Mill is an old power mill located in Crystal, Colorado. It sits on the edge of the Crystal River and was built in 1893. It used a water turbine to power an air compressor to power tool and machinery. If you are out in the area of Gunnison, Colorado, out near Aspen or Crested Butte and want to see an awesome historical mill, then a trip up to the Crystal Mill might be right up your alley.
Getting to the Crystal Mill can be quite the challenge. To get there you’ll need to go to Marble, Colorado. There isn’t much in the town of Marble and the Crystal Mill is the main attraction in the area.
What Is It Like To Travel To Marble, Colorado And Photograph The Crystal Mill?
The Crystal Mill dates back to 1893. It was used to power machinery for the Sheep Mountain Silver Mine. It went out of commission in 1917 when the mine closed. Since then there has been no real reason to maintain roads up to the Crystal Mill.
If you are flying in, you may want to fly into the Montrose, Colorado airport or the Gunnison, Colorado airport and get a rental car from there. You could also fly into the Grand Junction, Colorado airport.
From any of those airports you’ll need to get a rental car. If you plan to drive up to the Crystal Mill you’ll need to get a heavy duty 4wd vehicle. If you’ll be hiking, any rental car will get you to Marble, Colorado where you will park to do the hike. You’ll want to have some experience driving on really rocky boulder filled and sometimes narrow roads before attempting to drive up to the Crystal Mill. Popping a tire or damaging the undercarriage when driving the road to the Crystal Mill is no uncommon.
If you don’t have the vehicle or the driving expertise to drive up to the Crystal Mill, you can take the shoe leather express and hike the six or so miles up to the mill. The hike is pretty strenuous, has some steep sections, is quite rocky and may have large boulders strewn around. There are paid tours you can take if you want someone else to do the driving. Alternatively you may encounter a generous soul driving up willing to give you are ride all or part of the way way. If you set out to hike it, you should be prepared to hike the full 12 or so miles round trip.
When hiking, you’ll want to take plenty of water. You may be able to access the river on the way up to filter water with a LifeStraw water filter or something similar. You’ll want to take some food, some rain gear if there is any chance of rain, a flashlight in case you are up there late and of course your camera gear.
Once you get up to the Crystal Mill, you can photograph it from the edge of the Marble River up on the bank that overlooks the river. If the water flow isn’t too high you may be able to climb down to the water level and photograph the Crystal Mill from there in addition to the elevated bank across from the mill.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The The Crystal Mill In Colorado?
The most challenging aspect of getting a nice wall art quality photo of the Colorado Crystal Mill, is just getting there. It is a remote spot that requires off road driving skills and a vehicle that can handle the roads. If either of those is lacking then it requires about a 12 mile pretty strenuous hike over uneven and sometimes steep rocky terrain.
Once you get to the Crystal Mill, you’ll have a clear view of the mill from the riverbank opposite the mill across the Crystal River. There are not too many different perspectives from which to photograph it. Depending on the season you may be able to incorporate some wildflowers.
The best time and probably also the most popular and crowded would be the fall when fall colors light up the landscape around the Crystal Mill.
In addition to photographing the mill from the elevated riverbank across from the mill you can usually climb down to the water level of the Crystal River to get a couple different perspectives. If you get the lighting and weather conditions you want you can be done photographing the Crystal Mill in just a few minutes. Given the strenuous hike to get up there, chances are you’ll want to hang out, eat lunch and wander around a bit before heading back down.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing The Colorado Crystal Mill?
When photographing the Colorado Crystal Mill, the biggest consideration may be the weight of your camera gear if you are going to hike it. If you’ll be driving or getting a ride up, the weight of the gear won’t be an issue.
For best results you’ll want to have a decent DSLR or mirrorless camera with a lens range somewhere in the 17mm-105mm range. There are not any real distant views that would necessitate a lens longer than about 100mm unless you want to zoom way in on some specific part of the Crystal Mill.
A tripod is a good thing to have if you will be taking bracketed HDR shots to smooth out elements of the scene that are in shade vs those that are exposed to bright sunlight. Likewise, if you want to smooth our the water of the Crystal River with a neutral density filter you’ll want to have a tripod for that long exposure. A circular polarizer can come in handy to make colors more vibrant and remove glare on the water or anything else that may be wet.
This is not a great place for panoramic photos but it is possible to shoot panoramas that include the Crystal Mill from some angles. If you’ll be hiking and your panoramic photo gear is heavy, it will come down to whether or not you want to haul a bunch of extra weight that will probably not yield much better scenes that you can get with a regular setup. If you’ll be driving up, it may be worth tossing your pano gear in the car to pull out if you see a scene that would make good use of it.
What Is The Story Behind This Photo Of The Colorado Crystal Mill?
Back in the summer of 2013 I was on my third year of a 10-year mostly national park road trip around the United States and Canada. An elementary school teacher of my mom lived in Gunnison. She was getting up there in age and new the area very well. Her family played a big part in getting the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory up and running and knew the area very well. I’d stop by her place on the way back and forth across the country. She was happy to have the company and some help around the condo and I was happy to have a free place to crash.
One of the photo books I’d purchased written by Laurent Martres had details for accessing and photographing the Crystal Mill in it. It was quite an awesome historical site and one I hadn’t seen many photos of online. I decided I had to make the trek up there. The night before I decided to go to the Crystal Mill, I found an out of the way spot to sleep in my car much closer to the Crystal Mill than Gunnison.
The morning of the photo hike, I woke up when the sun rays started beating down through the windows of the car. I slowly woke up, hiked off the road a little bit for a bathroom break and then drove up through Marble, Colorado in search of the parking area at the start of the road up to the Crystal Mill. It wasn’t a well known spot at that time and there weren’t many cars there. There were a number of Jeeps heading up the road but I didn’t try to hitch a ride and nobody stopped to ask if I wanted one.
With water, rain gear, some snacks, a flashlight and a TON of camera gear in tow, I started the hike up to the Crystal Mill. It is quite a scenic hike. The Crystal River flowing within view of the Jeep road helped to keep the air a bit cooler than had it not been there but things still warmed up pretty fast. One of the steepest parts of the road is near the start. By the time I hiked up that sweat was pouring down my body. I questioned whether or not I had taken too much camera gear but continued on.
Once past that steep section of the road, a couple with a Jeep did stop. The asked where I was going and if I wanted a ride. Their destination was farther up a different road. The wouldn’t be ale to drive me all the way up to the Crystal Mill but they did get me a good chunk of the way there.
I got to the Crystal Mill a bit before noon. There were maybe 10 other people there all of whom had driven the road. I was the one crazy person who hiked most of it. Even with a ride a portion of the way up my legs were tired, my feet were a little sore from the rocky boulder strewn road and the weight of all the camera gear on my back.
It was a partly cloudy day with little chance of rain though a few drops did fall while I was up at the Crystal Mill. After lounging around, wandering through the woods a bit and taking a bunch of photos under the changing weather conditions of the day it was time to head back down the rough Jeep road I hiked up.
By the time I started hiking back down the road I was the only one left up at the Crystal Mill. It was a long, quiet rocky hike on the way back down. Nobody else was hiking down but a few Jeeps did pass me going up and down. A few of them had to back up to let a vehicle coming the other way pass in the narrow sections of the road.
Shortly before sunset I was back down at the car. I took a few photos of the lake near the parking lot as the sun dropped and the surrounding landscape lit up a bit. Following that I collapsed in the car sit, downed a couple energy bars, dried some of the sweat off my body and headed back to Gunnison, Colorado for the night.
Even with the ride for a section of the way up to the Crystal Mill, the hike up and back was still a fairly challenging one. It was nothing like the hike up to Panorama Ridge at Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada but it was above average in difficulty compared to many day hikes I’ve done over the years.
What Formats Is This Colorado Crystal Mill Wall Art Print Available?
This Colorado Crystal Mill wall art print is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches on metal, acrylic, wood, paper and canvas. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with bright direct light then you’ll want to choose something with a matte finish like matte canvas or paper print. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with diffused lighting then any print with any finish will look good. Matte prints will be a little darker while anything with a shiny metal or glossy finish will look more vibrant.
If you’d like household accessories instead, there are high quality shower curtains available as well as super soft and cuddly Sherpa fleece blankets. If you go with a shower curtain, a variety f complementary bath towels are available to deck out the whole bathroom with a the Crystal Mill look.
If you’d like something for day to day use, there are sturdy high quality tote bag available. The work well for anything from grocery shopping bags to beach bags.
Cel phone cases for the latest Apple and Samsung phones are available. You can adjust the image to fit whatever portion of the image you’d like to appear on the cel phone case.
Finally,t his image comes on jigsaw puzzles. You can choose from 500 or 1,000 pieces for a moderate or extreme challenge. The puzzles come in solid cardboard boxes with the image printed on the outside of the box.
A number of other items are available as well.
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